LA PLATA, ARCHDIOCESE of. – In Argentina, and the capital city of the province of Buenos Aires, it is situated on the right bank of the river of the same name.
It extends over approximately 64,000 sq km and has a population of 3,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 2,740,000 are Catholics, distributed among 167 parishes, served by 317 diocesan priests and 375 religious priests; it has one seminary, 88 male and 273 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio 1951, p. 240).
The diocese was created by Pope Leo XIII on 15 February 1897, by the bull In Petri cathedra, as a suffragan of Buenos Aires. Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution Nobilis Argentinae nationis of 20 April 1934, raised it to a metropolitan see, assigning to it as suffragans the dioceses of Bahia Blanca and Viedma (AAS, 27 [1935], pp. 257–63).
The cathedral is dedicated to Maria S.ma Immacolata.