LOANDA, DIOCESE OF. – City and archdiocese in Angola. From the 15th century, that is, from the period of discovery, the territories of Congo and Angola were the object of missionary apostolate and successively belonged to the jurisdiction of the Order of Christ until 1514 and to that of the diocese of Funchal until 1596, when Clement VIII erected the diocese of Angola and Congo, without precise limits and as suffragan of the archbishop of Lisbon. D. Miguel Rangel was its first prelate and the episcopal see remained at S. Salvador do Congo until 1676; after that it was definitively established at L.
In 1940, following the missionary agreement between the Holy See and the Portuguese government, on 4 September with the bull Solemnibus conventionibus L. it was erected as an archdiocese.
Over an area of 330,900 sq. km. it has 1,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 223,000 are Catholics, distributed in 51 parishes served by 26 diocesan priests and 62 regular clergy, with 20 male and 33 female religious communities, flourishing seminaries and 14 charitable institutions. It publishes the newspaper: O apostolado. It has three suffragans: Nova Lisboa, S. Tomé, Silva Porto (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 25).
Alexandre do Nascimento