SANTISSIMA ASSUNZIONE DEL PARAGUAY, ARCHDIOCESE of. — Also called simply, before 1929, “of Paraguay,” because it comprised the entire territory of the Republic of that name, situated between Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil.
It has an area of 7,458 sq. km., with a population of 700,000 inhabitants, of whom 695,000 are Catholics, distributed among 44 parishes, served by 48 diocesan and 80 regular priests; it has a seminary, 12 male and 22 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 366).
The diocese was created by Pope Paolo III in 1547 with the title of Paraguay and became suffragan to Buenos Aires in 1865. Paraguay, discovered in 1526 by Sebastiano
Caboto and conquered by the Spaniards in 1536, was inhabited by the Guaraníes, baptized and colonized by Jesuit missionaries from 1610 to 1767. It depended politically and ecclesiastically on La Plata, now Argentina. On 5 May 1929 Pio XI, by the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, created, by division, the dioceses of Concepcion and Villarrica, declaring them suffragans of the new metropolitan see of the S.ma Assunzione, raised to that rank at the same time.