LONDON, DIOCESI di. - City and diocese in the province of Ontario (Canada). Erected as a diocese by Pius IX with the brief De Salute Dominici gregis of 21 Feb. 1855, by dismemberment of the diocese of Toronto (Ontario). Its see was transferred on 2 Feb. 1859 from L. to Sandwich, and then from Sandwich to L. on 3 Oct. 1869.
It has a Catholic population of 129,879 souls, distributed among 97 parishes, with 169 diocesan priests and 82 religious (Capuchins, Congregation of St. Basil,
Redemptorists, Foreign Missions of Scarboro Bluffs). There are 3 seminaries, 2 colleges, 101 churches with a resident priest, 31 missions, 120 churches, 4 hospitals, and 1 orphanage.
The area of the territory is 13,272 sq. km., and the total population is 711,328 inhabitants, of whom 131,755 are Catholics.