TOLEDO IN AMERICA, DIOCESI di. – Diocese and city in the ecclesiastical province of Cincinnati (U.S.A.).
The diocese was created by Pope Pius X on 15 April 1910, by separation from that of Cleveland. The territory had 125,000 Catholics, whereas today there are 210,000 among a total population of 1,116,819 souls dispersed over a territory of 8,222 square miles. The Catholics were concentrated especially in T., and at the time the diocese was created there were 20 parishes in the city. Today, in the diocese of T. (Toletana in America), there are 256 diocesan priests and 66 religious in 6 different communities, 155 parishes, 24 chapels, 5 women’s religious communities (1,525 nuns), 52 seminarians, 2 scholasticates, 1 college, 1 orphanage, and 5 hospitals.
The region, situated on the shores of Lake Erie, lay along the route of the great explorers of the 17th century. The priest Edmund Burke, vicar general for « Haut Canada », settled in 1794 at Monroe (today Frenchtown), Michigan. After 1830 there were some Catholic groups and a priest residing at S. Maria, Tiffin.