OEIRAS, DIOCESE of. – City and diocese in the state of Pará in Brazil.
It has an area of 70,000 sq km, with a population of 350,000 inhabitants, of whom 348,000 are Catholics. It has 8 parishes with 6 diocesan priests, one seminary, and two women’s religious communities.
The diocese was created by Pope Pius XII by the apostolic constitution Ad Domini gregis of 16 December 1944, through the division of the diocese of Piani (v. TERESINA); the parish church of S. Maria della Vittoria was elevated to the rank and dignity of a cathedral. The bishop, Msgr. F. Espedito Lopes, took possession only on 6 January 1949.
BIBL.: AAS, 37 (1945), pp. 133–35; B. Lehmann, O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, pp. 250–51. Virginio Battezzati