**VALENCIA IN VENEZUELA, Diocese of.** Capital city of the State of Carabobo and a diocese in Venezuela (South America).
Over an area of 20,650 sq. km., it has 327,450 inhabitants, of whom 326,000 are Catholics; it has 40 parishes with 41 diocesan priests and 70 regular clergy; it comprises 20 male and 13 female religious communities (*Ann. Pont. 1953*, p. 440). The diocese was erected by Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Ad munus* of 12 Oct. 1922, by separating it from the archdiocese of Caracas or Santiago of Venezuela, of which it is a suffragan, and elevating the church of the Blessed Virgin to the rank and dignity of a cathedral. The first bishop was Mgr. S. Montes de Oca (1927–34), succeeded in 1937 by Mgr. G. Adam.
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BIBL.:** AAS, 15 (1923), pp. 99–102; J. Cunillera, *Anuario eclesiástico venezolano 1953*, Caracas 1953, pp. 178–99. Enrico Josi