VILKAVIŠKIS, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the Republic of Lithuania.
It has an area of 12,000 sq. km, with a population of 365,000 inhabitants, of whom 350,000 are Catholics; it had 101 parishes and 120 churches (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 424). No further statistical data are available, since the entire ecclesiastical hierarchy has been suppressed.
The diocese was erected by Pope Pius XI through the apostolic constitution Lituanorum gente of 4 April 1926, by division from the archdiocese of Kaunas, and was assigned 11 deaneries. The church, dedicated to the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was raised to the rank and dignity of a Cathedral.
BIBL.: AAS, 18 (1926), pp. 121-23.