ROCKFORD, DIOCESE OF
A diocese and city in the State of Illinois (U.S.A.).
The area of the diocese, a suffragan of Chicago, is 6,475 square miles, with a total population (1950 census) of 610,424, of whom 79,102 are Catholics as of 1951. Two hundred twenty-six priests, of whom 77 are religious (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Conventuals, Premonstratensians, Augustinians, Benedictines, Servites), exercise the sacred ministry in 89 parishes, 18 chapels, and 12 missions. There are also 25 female congregations with 616 sisters, 37 seminarians, 3 scholastics, 8 hospitals, and 1 orphanage.
The Diocese of Rockford was erected by Pius X on 27 September 1908 for the northwestern part of the State of Illinois. Separated from Chicago, the diocese is largely populated by people of German and Irish descent. The first bishop was the Most Rev. Peter James Muldoon, auxiliary of Chicago, who took possession of his see on 15 December 1908. The early history of the diocese Chicago (v.).