PORTO VECCHIO (Puerto-Viejo), DIOCESE OF. - Diocese and capital city of the province of Manabí in Ecuador.
It has an area of 18,923 sq. km. with a population of 400,000, of whom 380,000 are Catholic; it comprises 96 parishes served by 14 diocesan priests and 19 religious; a major seminary, 4 male religious communities and 4 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 326). The diocese was erected by Pope Pius IX in 1871 by separation from the archdiocese of Quito, of which it is a suffragan.
BIBL.: J. Moreno-Lacalle, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XII, p. 294 Suppl., p. 596; anon., s. V. ENOCH. Eur. Am., XLVI, pp. 664-65. Enrico Jossi