LOJA, DIOCESE OF. - Diocese and capital of the homonymous province, a city in Ecuador.
It has an area of 20,000 sq. km. with a population of 180,000 inhabitants, of whom 176,400 are Catholic; it comprises 46 parishes served by 56 diocesan priests and 14 regular clergy, one seminary, 4 male religious communities and 14 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 252).
The city, situated in the Val de Cambamba, was founded in 1546 and in 1580 the first provincial council was held there, as there was already a parish church and communities of Franciscans and Dominicans. In 1861 L. had a college run by the Jesuits and in 1865 Pope Pius IX created the diocese of L.; the first bishop was Msgr. Checa, succeeded by Msgr. Riofrio, later archbishop of Quito, the third, Msgr. J. Masia, was exiled and died in Peru in 1902. He was followed in 1907 by Msgr. J. A. Eguiguren who founded the preparatory school of the seminary entrusting it to the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Among the churches, besides the cathedral, those of the Carmine, St. Joseph, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and St. Sebastian are remembered. The diocese is a suffragan of Quito.