Diocese of Rio Branco
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rio Branco is a Latin suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Porto Velho.
Its cathedral episcopal see is the Marian Catedral Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, dedicated to Our Lady of Nazareth, in the city of Rio Branco, Acre state, Brazil.
History
On 4 October 1919, Pope Benedict XV established the Territorial Prelature of Acre and Purus, named after the Amazonian rivers Acre and Purus, on canonical territory split off from the then Diocese of Amazonas.Pope Pius XI changed the name of the prelature to the Territorial Prelature of São Peregrino Laziosi no Alto Acre e Alto Purus on 10 December 1926, but its original name was restored on 26 April 1958 by Pope Pius XII.
The territorial prelature was elevated to a bishopric and hence renamed after its see as Diocese of Rio Branco by Saint John Paul II on 15 February 1986.
Statistics
As per 2014, it pastorally serves 443,000 Catholics on 104,473 km2 in 32 parishes and 5 missions with 33 priests, 22 deacons, 105 lay religious and 18 seminarians.Ordinaries
Territorial Bishop-Prelates of Acre and Purus
- Geraldo Van Caloen, O.S.B., Titular Bishop of Phocæa ; later Abbot nullius of Nossa Senhora do Monserrate do Rio de Janeiro
- Próspero Gustavo Bernardi, Servite Order, Titular Bishop of Paltus
Territorial Bishop-Prelates of São Peregrino Laziosi no Alto Acre e Alto Purus
- Próspero M. Gustavo Bernardi, 10 December 1926 1 February 1944 )
- Apostolic Administrator Father Antônio Julio Maria Mattioli, Society of Mary
- Antônio Julio Maria Mattioli, O.S.M. 10 January 1948 13 April 1962 ), Titular Bishop of Lacedæmonia
Territorial Bishop-Prelates of Acre and Purus
- Antônio Julio Maria Mattioli, S.M. 26 April 1958 13 April 1962 )
- Giocondo Maria Grotti, O.S.M., Titular Bishop of Thunigaba
- Moacyr Grechi, O.S.M., Titular Bishop of Vegesela in Numidia
Suffragan Bishops of Rio Branco
- Moacyr Grechi, O.S.M., next Archbishop of Rio Branco's Metropolitan see Porto Velho
- Joaquín Pertíñez Fernández, Order of Augustinian Recollects, no prior office