PORTO ALEGRE (Portalegrè nel Brasile), Archdiocese of. - Capital city and archdiocese in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. It has an area of 44,620 sq km with a population of 1,358,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,188,000 are Catholics. It has 137 parishes served by 184 diocesan priests and 253 regulars, 2 seminaries; it has 88 male religious communities and 253 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 323).
The city was founded in the middle of the 18th century by the inhabitants of Viamão, who established there a port called Porto dos Casares, a name that in 1773 was changed to the present one. The diocese was created by Pope Pius IX with the bull Ad oves dominicas of 7 May 1848, by dismemberment from the diocese of St. Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro, with the title of S. Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul. The first bishop was Msgr. F. J. Rodrigues Prates (1848-58). Pope Pius X with the bull Prædecessorum of 15 Aug. 1910, by dismemberment from this diocese, created the three new dioceses of Pelotas, Uruguayana and S. Maria, and elevated S. Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul to a metropolitan see, changing its name to P. At present the archdiocese of P. has as suffragans the dioceses of Caxias, Pelotas, S. Maria, Uruguayana and the nullius prelature of Vaccaria. The Cathedral is dedicated to N. S. Madre de Seus; other churches are those of N. Senhora das Dores and of St. Joseph, officiated by the Jesuits, of the Congregation, of the Rosary, etc.
BIBL. AAS, 2 (1910), pp. 681-82; Enc. Eur. Amer., XLVI, pp. 646-48; G. B. Lehmann, O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, pp. 297-312. Virginio Battezzati
CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS - In P. the major Catholic cultural institutions are three.
1. The central Seminary
The major metropolitan, or provincial, Seminary and the diocesan minor Seminary were transferred in 1913 to Sao Leopoldo, into the building of the Jesuits which, erected in 1873 and renovated in 1900, had until then functioned as the "College of the Immaculate Conception" (a name passed on to the major Seminary). In 1923 the major Seminary occupied the nearby St. Joseph college of the Franciscan Sisters who, moving elsewhere, ceded the building to the Jesuits. In 1938 the minor Seminary (St. Joseph) moved to the new diocesan seat in Gravataí, and in the building left free the philosophical section of the same major Seminary was installed, declared "central" in 1934. For the flourishing Institute, which numbers more than 300 pupils (for 1951, 184 "philosophers" and 127 "theologians"), a grand seat is under advanced construction at Viamão.
2. The Jesuit maximum College
For the pupils of the Society of Jesus (Maximum College for the religious Province of southern Brazil), who from 1925 lived together with the seminarians, in 1942 the new Maximum College of Christ the King was inaugurated at Sao Leopoldo, where from 1945 the Faculties of theology and of philosophy have been functioning, confirmed by the Holy See in 1949.
3. The Catholic University
With its seat in P. (Universidade católica do Rio Grande do Sul), it is due to the work of the Marist Brothers of the Schools, established there in 1900. Its origins go back to 1927 with the foundation of a higher institute of commerce attached to the College of N. S. del Rosario; the federal law of 11 Apr. 1931 (decree 9.851) on the reform of higher education favored its organization and development. The various legal authorizations and the definitive approval of the federal government on 9 Nov. 1948 (decree 25.794) were followed by the canonical erection, with the conferral of the title of "pontifical" on 1 Nov. 1950 (decree Tot inter, in AAS, 43 [1951], p. 495).
It has three Faculties: philosophy (with sciences and letters), law, political and economic sciences; it has "aggregated" the School of social service. The third Catholic University of Brazil, after those of Rio de Janeiro and S. Paolo, it is steadily establishing itself through its didactic seriousness. Its Grand Chancellor is the archbishop of P., who also serves as president of the Rio Grande episcopal Commission for the interests of the University.
Bibliography
Igino Cecchetti