RIO PRETO, DIOCESI di. – Suffragan of the archdiocese of S. Paolo, in the State of the same name (Brazil).
It has an area of 37,500 sq. km., with a population of 610,000 inhabitants, of whom 600,000 are Catholics. It has 43 parishes, with 32 diocesan priests and 20 religious priests. It has a minor seminary, 7 male and 4 female religious communities.
The diocese was created by Pope Pius XI, by the bull Sollecituo omnium Ecclesiarum of January 1929, through the dismemberment of the diocese of S. Carlo do Pinhal, elevating the church of S. Joseph of R. P. to cathedral status. Its first bishop was Msgr. Libanio Lafaicte.
BIBL.: O Brasil Católico 1947, Juiz de Fora 1947, p. 328 ff.; Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 339. Virginio Battezzati