PUNTA ARENAS, DIOCESI of. — City and diocese of Chile, capital of the province of Magallanes, suffragan of the archdiocese of S.ma Concezione.
It has an area of 135 sq. km and a population of 57,000 inhabitants, of whom 55,000 are Catholics, divided among 6 parishes. The diocesan clergy consists of 34 regular priests; it also has 1 seminary, 5 male and 7 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 331). The diocese was established by Pius XII by the apostolic constitution Ut in amplissimo of 27 January 1947, erecting the apostolic vicariate of Magellan as a diocese and elevating the church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy to cathedral status.
BIBL.: AAS, 39 (1947), pp. 337–39; anon., s. V. in Enc. Eur. Am., XLVIII, pp. 568–69.