ROCKFORD, DIOCESE of. - Diocese and city in the State of Illinois (U. S. A.)
The area of the diocese, suffragan of Chicago, is 6,475 square miles, with a total population (1950 census) of 610,424 inhabitants, of whom 79,102 are today (1951) Catholics; 226 priests, of whom 77 are religious (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Conventuals, Premonstratensians, Augustinians, Benedictines, Servites), exercise the sacred ministry in the 89 parishes, 18 chapels, and 12 missions. There are also 25 congregations of women with 616 sisters, 37 seminarians, 3 scholasticates, 8 hospitals, and 1 orphanage.
The diocese of R. was erected by Pius X on 27 Sept. 1908 for the northwestern part of the State of Illinois. Detached
from Chicago, the diocese is largely populated by persons of German and Irish descent. The first bishop was Msgr. Pietro Jacomo Muldoon, auxiliary of Chicago, who took possession of his see on 15 Dec. 1908. The early history of the diocese Chicago (v.).