Lahore, Diocese of

LAHORE, Diocese of. - Tradition holds that St. Thomas the Apostle also preached at L. In 1591, invited by Akbar, emperor of the Mongols, 7th descendant of Tamerlane, some Jesuits arrived at L., who in 1597 built a church, opened for worship, which they soon (1614) abandoned, because they were expelled. The year 1624 marked a revival of the mission, which however could not last because of the hostility of Akbar's successor; the few remaining faithful were occasionally visited by the missionaries of Agra and Delhi. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773), the mission of the Great Mogul was incorporated into the apostolic vicariate of Tibet-Hindustan, erected in 1820 and entrusted to the Capuchins.

During and after the occupation of the Punjab by the English, the Capuchins, who followed the troops as chaplains, founded churches in various localities, among them L., Multan and Rawalpindi. From 1855 the Ordinary of Agra attended to the mission of the Punjab, receiving, as superior of the mission itself, the faculties of apostolic prefect, until on Sept. 21, 1880 the apostolic vicariate of the Punjab was erected (including also Kashmir) with its seat at L. The apostolic vicariate was then elevated to a diocese on Sept. 1, 1886 and made a suffragan, under the name of L., of the archdiocese of Agra. On Oct. 27, 1888 the cession of the diocese to the Capuchin province of Belgium was authorized and the new missionaries arrived at L. on March 9, 1889. The territory underwent boundary changes and there were detached from it: the apostolic prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir (which became in 1947 the diocese of Rawalpindi) in 1887 and in part the archdiocese of Delhi (now Delhi and Simla) in 1910. With the formation of the two independent States of India and Pakistan (Aug. 15, 1947) the diocese of L. came to find itself with part of its territory in India and part in Pakistan. By virtue of a decree of the S. Congregation of Propaganda, dated July 14, 1950, it was limited to the part included in western Pakistan. On July 15 of the same year, with the establishment of the ecclesiastical province formed by the dioceses situated in western Pakistan, the diocese of L. was declared a suffragan of the new metropolitan see of Karachi.

The diocese has an area of 119,175 sq. km. and a population of about 15 million inhabitants (1949 statistics), for the most part Muslims. Catholics number 73,539 and catechumens 56,416; Protestants 250,000. The primary stations number about twenty, the secondary stations about sixty, with 27 churches and 116 chapels. The missionary personnel is composed of 40 Belgian Capuchin priests, 2 native priests and ten brothers. About a hundred nuns, half foreign and half native, support, together with 112 catechists and 81 teachers, the work of the missionaries in an environment rather resistant to Christian-Catholic penetration. Instruction is given in 17 elementary schools with about 3,000 children, 13 middle schools with 1,157 students, 8 higher schools with 265 pupils. There is also a normal school with 18 pupils. The works of charity are represented by 3 orphanages, in which 125 orphans are educated, and 2 dispensaries with 64 thousand consultations a year. At L. 3 periodicals are printed: the Catholic news, 500 copies, the Qatholiq naqib, 600 copies, the Collectanea Lahoreensia, 180 copies. There is no seminary. Pious associations and associations of Catholic Action are not lacking.

Pompeo Borgna