Sobrai, Diocese of

SOBRAI, DIOCESIS of. — City and diocese in the State of Ceará, Brazil.

It has an area of 48,200 sq. km. and a population of 783,981 inhabitants, of whom 755,342 are Catholics. It has 33 parishes, with 53 diocesan priests and 7 religious priests. It has one seminary, one male religious community, and 4 female communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 404).

The diocese was created by Benedict XV on 10 Nov. 1915 with the constitution Catholicae religionis bonum, by the dismemberment of the western part of the diocese of Fortaleza, which was simultaneously elevated to metropolitan dignity and of which the diocese of S. became a suffragan. Its titular patron, both of the diocese and of the cathedral, is Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.