PORTO VECCHIO (Puerto-Viejo), DIOCESE of — Diocese and capital city of the province of Manabii in Ecuador.
It has an area of 18,923 sq. km. and a population of 400,000 inhabitants, of whom 380,000 are Catholics; it has 96 parishes served by 14 diocesan priests and 19 religious priests; it has 1 major seminary, 4 male and 11 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1932, p. 326). The diocese was established by Pope Pius IX in 1871 through the division of the archdiocese of Quito, of which it is a suffragan.
BIBL.: J. Moreno-Lacalle, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XII, p. 204 and Suppl., p. 596; anon., s. V. in Enc. Eur. Am., XLVI, pp. 664–65. Enrico Josi