ORTONA, DIOCESI DI

The diocese extends over 50 sq. km. in the civil province of the same name, with a population of 180,000 inhabitants, of whom 179,500 are Catholic. It has 25 parishes served by 17 diocesan priests and 11 religious; it has a seminary, male religious communities and 5 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 303). The diocese was created by Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Praedecessoribus nostris* of 11 November 1924 by separating it from the archdiocese of Plata, which on the same date assumed the name of Sucre, of which it became a suffragan; Pius XII with the apostolic constitution *Ad spirituale bonum* of 18 June 1943 transferred Ortona to the ecclesiastical province of La Paz.