LAFAYETTE, Diocese of. – City and diocese in the State of Louisiana, in the United States of America. The diocese comprises the counties of Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion.
It has an area of 11,090 square miles and a population of 434,850, of whom 295,000 are Catholics. It has 101 parishes, 96 chapels, and 88 stations served by 113 diocesan priests and 95 regular clergy, 7 male and 15 female religious communities, 3 seminaries, 1 college, 18 diocesan and parochial high schools, and 43 parochial schools; in 1949 there were 315 conversions.
The diocese was erected by Pope Benedict XV on 11 January 1918; its first bishop was the Most Rev. J. B. Jeanmard; it is a suffragan of New Orleans. The cathedral is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist.