PELOTAS, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
It has an area of 43,757 sq. km., with a population of 600,000 inhabitants, of whom 480,000 are Catholics; it has 24 parishes served by 24 diocesan priests and 63 religious priests, and one seminary; 11 male and 33 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 314). The diocese was created by Pope Pio X with the bull Praedecassorum nostrorum of 15 August 1910, as a suffragan of Porto Alegre. The first bishop was Msgr. F. de Campos Barreto (1910–20). The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Francesco di Paola.
BIBL.: G. B. Lehmann, O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, pp. 271–74. Virginio Battezzati