RANCHI, DIOCESE of. — More often called the Chota Nagpur mission, after the name of one of its principal regions, it was detached from the Archdiocese of Calcutta (India), of which it is a suffragan, erected as a diocese on 25 May 1927, and entrusted to the Jesuits.
Situated in north-eastern India, west of Calcutta, it encompasses the territory of three states, namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa, with an area of 107,488 sq. km. and a population of approximately 8 million inhabitants, of whom 3,525,000 are Hindus, 3,542,000 animists, 400,000 Muslims, and 160,000 Protestants. There are 354,230 Catholics and 17,250 catechumens. It has 51 quasi-parishes or districts and more than 1,000 outstations. The priests number 172: 124 foreign and 48 Indian; the sisters number 240: 66 foreign and 174 Indian. There is a major and a minor seminary. The catechists number 592. Instruction is provided in 841 elementary schools, 51 middle schools, 15 secondary schools, 2 university colleges, 18 vocational schools, and 6 normal schools. There are also 6 hospitals, 32 dispensaries, and a printing press, where, among other things, two monthly periodicals with a respectable circulation are published. Various pious associations, Catholic Action groups, and Marian congregations flourish.
About 70 years ago there were scarcely 2,000 Catholics. The person who gave impetus to the conversion movement was Fr. Lievens, a Belgian Jesuit, who, in 8 years, brought 60,000 individuals into the Church. He and his confrere Fr. Hoffman, by founding the Chotanagpur Catholic Cooperative Credit Society in 1909, succeeded in raising the economic level of the aboriginal peoples. In addition to the aforementioned cooperative, which currently brings together 23,000 heads of families in 700 groups, there is a Catholic Labour Bureau, a kind of employment office, and a Grains Bank with numerous branches, capable of supplying rice to farmers even in times of hunger and famine.
On 14 June 1951, an area was detached from it to form Sambalpur (v.), and on 13 December 1951 another area was detached for the erection of the diocese of Raigarh-Ambikapur. On the same date, the diocese of R. passed to the indigenous clergy.