LA RIOJA, DIOCESI di. – Diocese and capital city in the province of the same name in Argentina (South America).
The diocese has an area of 98,000 sq km and a population of 103,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 10 parishes served by 13 diocesan priests and 12 religious priests; it has one seminary, 3 male and 6 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 241).
Pope Pius XI, by the apostolic constitution Nobilis Argentinae nationis of 20 April 1934, created the diocese of La R. by detaching it from that of Cordova, establishing the episcopal see in the city of L. R. and elevating to cathedral status the church there dedicated to St Nicholas of Bari. It is a suffragan of Cordova (AAS, 27 [1935], pp. 257–63).