Sambalpur, Diocese of

SAMBALPUR, Diocese of. - Erected by decree of 14 June 1951 and constituted from the civil districts of Ganpur, Bonai and Bamra (ceded by the diocese of Ranchi), from those of Patna and S. and part of the district of Sonepur (ceded by the diocese of Nagpur) and finally from the districts of Raikol Athamalik, Angul, Pal Lahara, Talchar, Hindol and Dhenkanal (ceded by the archdiocese of Calcutta).

It borders on the dioceses of Ranchi, Nagpur, Cuttack, and the archdiocese of Calcutta. The total area of the diocese, which is entirely comprised within the State of Orissa, is 47,000 sq km, with a population of 3,608,795 inhabitants (1941 census), of whom: 2,570,000 Hindus, 924,000 aborigines, 14,000 Muslims and 100,000 of various stocks. The language used and understood by all is Oriya, but in the aboriginal tribes other languages are also spoken. Catholics number 66,000 and Protestants of various sects 30,000. The city of S., the see of the diocese, is the most populous center with about 20,000 souls. The diocese has been entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word and declared a suffragan of Calcutta. At present there are 6 residences with 6 churches, 231 small chapels, 116 catechists and 112 teachers, 2 institutes of sisters, one foreign and the other native, 1 higher school, 6 middle schools, 2 normal schools, 2 vocational schools, 125 elementary schools, 3 small hospitals and not a few dispensaries. Some of the districts that make up the diocesan territory were, before the proclamation of India as an independent State, small semi-independent princely states, impenetrable to Christianity. With the promulgation of the Constitution of the new Indian Republic, which guarantees everywhere freedom of worship and of proselytism, it will be possible for missionaries to reach even those regions, closed until now to every form of evangelization.

Pompeo Borgna