RALEIGH, DIOCESI di. - City and diocese in the State of North Carolina (United States of America).
The diocese of R. comprises the whole State of North Carolina, that is, an area of 52,349 square miles with a total population (1950 census) of 4,051,740 inhabitants, of whom only 22,067 are Catholics. The diocese has 167 priests, 77 of whom are religious, belonging to 16 different congregations, 89 parishes, 5 chapels, 33 missions, 91 stations, 20 women’s congregations (327 sisters), 30 seminarians, 1 college, 5 hospitals, and 1 orphanage.
R. was erected as the apostolic vicariate of North Carolina on 3 March 1868, by separation from Charlestown, South Carolina. Blessed Pius X, on 8 June 1910, detached 8 counties from it to form the abbey « nullius » of Belmont, which was canonically erected on 18 Oct. 1910. The apostolic vicariate of North Carolina was elevated to a diocese, with its see at R., by the apostolic constitution Omnium Ecclesiamum sollicitudo of Pius XI, of 12 Dec. 1924. It is suffragan to Baltimore.