PESQUEIRA, DIOCESE OF
A city and diocese in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil.
It has an area of 35,000 sq. km. with a population of 392,887, of whom 392,000 are Catholic. It comprises 25 parishes served by 32 secular priests and 10 regular clergy, one seminary, 2 male and 4 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 316).
The diocese was erected by Blessed Pope Pius X on 5 April 1910 by separating territory from Olinda and Recife, with its seat in Floresta. Benedict XV, by decree of 2 August 1918, transferred the see to Pesqueira. The diocese is a suffragan of Olinda and Recife. Its first bishop was Msgr. A. Alvaro da Silva, later Archbishop of Bahia. Pope Pius XI, by the apostolic constitution *Dominici gregis* of 20 November 1923, detached part of the territory to erect the new Diocese of Petrolina (AAS, 16 [1924], pp. 216-18).