Valdivia, Diocese of

VALDIVIA, DIOCESI of. — City and diocese in the province of V. and Osorno in Chile (South America).

It has an area of 18,967 sq km and a population of 257,825 inhabitants, of whom 224,565 are Catholics; it has 25 parishes served by 17 diocesan priests and 45 regular priests; it has 6 male and 13 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 440). The diocese was created by Pope Pius XII on 8 July 1944 with the apostolic constitution Apostolicis plumbo litteris, as a suffragan of S.ma Concezione.