LOS ANGELES, ARCHDIOCESE of - City and archdiocese in the State of California in the United States of America. It comprises the counties of Los A., S. Barbara and Ventura, all in the State of California. It has an area of 9,508 miles, with 4,635,113 inhabitants, of whom 690,200 are Catholics, distributed in 234 parishes, 143 chapels, 43 missions and 16 stations, served by 482 diocesan priests and 285 regulars; with the major seminary (St. John's Seminary) and the minor seminary (Los A. College), 61 male religious communities and 171 female; 138 institutions of male education; among the institutions of higher learning special mention should be made of the "Loyola University of Los A.", the "College of Arts and Sciences", the "College of Business Administration", the "College of Engineering" and the "School of Law", all entrusted to the Jesuits; 156 institutions of female education; 30 of assistance and care. In 1949 there were 2,538 conversions.
On 1 May 1850 Pius IX created the diocese of Monterey, which in 1903 changed to Monterey and Los A.; Pius XI, with his apostolic constitution of 1 June 1922, divided the diocese of Monterey-Los A. in two, creating the diocese of Los A.-San Diego (AAS, 14 [1922], pp. 539-541), assigning to it the eight counties of Imperial, Los A., Orange, Riverside, S. Bernardino, S. Diego, S. Barbara, Ventura. But the same Pontiff, with the apostolic constitution Nimis amplas of 11 July 1936 (AAS, 28 [1936], pp. 488-90), separated the diocese of S. Diego from that of Los A. and at the same time elevated the latter to the rank of metropolitan, giving it as suffragans the dioceses of S. Diego, Monterey, Fresno and Tucson.
Patroness of the archdiocese is St. Vibiana; the first bishop was Msgr. F. Garcia Diego y Moreno (d. 1846).
Bibliography4 works
Enrico Josi