QUERÉTARO, DIOCESE OF. – Diocese in Mexico, suffragane of Morelia.
It covers an area of 15,306 sq km with a population of 281,000, of whom 280,600 are Catholic; it has 35 parishes served by 87 diocesan priests and 10 regular clergy; 6 male and 16 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 332).
The city, founded in 1446, was occupied by the Spanish in 1531. The Carmelites settled there in 1601; the Mercedarians in 1636 and the Dominicans in 1692; the Augustinians and the Fathers of the Oratory of St Philip Neri also resided in Querétaro. In the diocese there was also a Jesuit college, which was suppressed in 1767 by Charles III after the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish dominions. A renowned institution in Querétaro was the College of Apostolic Missionaries, highly praised by Innocent XI for its contribution to the spread of the faith in the Indies.
The city was erected as a diocese on 26 January 1862 by the bull Optimum Maximum of Pius IX. The first bishop was Bernardo Garate.