SAN DIEGO, DIOCESE OF. — Diocese and city in the State of California (U.S.A.). Today the territory comprises 35,879 square miles with a total population (1950) of 1,048,767 inhabitants in the counties of Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego in California.
The Catholics number (1951) 160,000; with 242 priests, of whom 67 are religious, exercising the sacred ministry in 19 parishes, 47 chapels, and 47 missions. There are also 25 women’s congregations, 2 seminaries, 1 Franciscan school, 2 orphanages, and 2 hospitals. The see of Monterey is San Diego, erected by Gregory XIV on 27 April 1840, originally comprising both Californias; but when Upper California passed under the civil jurisdiction of the United States, Pius IX detached this ancient Mexican province from the territory of Monterey (21 December 1853). On 20 July the Upper California was divided into two dioceses, and the Diocese of Monterey then became a suffragan San Francisco (v.).
In 1922, Pius XI divided Monterey-Fresno to give more suitable boundaries to the dioceses of San Francisco and Sacramento; the southern part of the State formed the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego. On 11 July 1936, with the apostolic constitution Ad spirituale christianae plebis regimen, Pius XI erected the Diocese of San Diego by separating it from Los Angeles.