SAN FERNANDO. – Diocese in the Philippines, suffragan of Manila, erected on 11 December 1948 by detaching from the Archdiocese of Manila the civil provinces of Baatan and Pampagna, and those parts of the provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Nueva Ecija that MANIA (v.).
Mons. Cesare Guerrero, until then auxiliary bishop of Manila since 1937, was appointed its first bishop on 14 May 1949. The diocese covers 12,020 sq. km.; the number of churches and chapels is 1,077, of which only 89, however, are parishes; 103 secular priests and 13 religious priests devote themselves to the care of souls. The Seminary has 35 students. Of the 982,765 inhabitants, 884,338 are Catholics (1950).
BIBL.: AAS, 41 (1949), pp. 400-402. Nicola Kowalsky