Rancagua, Diocese of

RANCAGUA, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the civil provinces of O’Higgins and Colchagua, Chile (South America).

The diocese covers a territory of 15,590 sq. miles and has a total population of 310,000, of whom 280,000 are Catholics; it has 209 churches, 44 parishes, 47 diocesan priests, 17 seminarians, and 48 religious priests.

The diocese of Santiago de Chile, erected by Pius IV in 1561 as a suffragan of Lima, was elevated to a metropolitan see by Gregory XVI in 1840. From it, on 18 Oct. 1925, Pius XI, by the constitution Apostolici muneris, dismembering the two civil provinces of O’Higgins and Colchagua, created the diocese of R.; the church of S. Croce in R. was elevated to a cathedral.