LA RIOJA, DIOCESE OF
A diocese and provincial capital in the homonymous province of Argentina (South America).
The diocese covers an area of 98,000 sq. km. with a population of 103,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed across 10 parishes served by 13 diocesan priests and 12 religious; one seminary, 3 male religious communities, and 6 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 241).
Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution *Nobilis Argentinae nationis* of 20 April 1934, erected the diocese of La Rioja by separating it from the diocese of Córdoba, establishing the episcopal see in the city of La Rioja and elevating the existing church dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari to cathedral status. It is a suffragan of Córdoba (AAS, 27 [1935], pp. 257-63).