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Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi

Islamabaden(sis)-Ravalpinden(sis)

The Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi is a Latin rite diocese covering northern Pakistan, including Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and the Rawalpindi and Sargodha Divisions, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lahore. Erected in 1887 as the Apostolic Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir from the Diocese of Lahore, it became the Diocese of Rawalpindi in 1947 and took its present name in 1979. Its seat is St. Joseph's Cathedral in Rawalpindi.

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
1 June 1979
Latin
Islamabaden(sis)-Ravalpinden(sis)
Annuario code
001001680

The see in figures

Catholics
214,976
Population
36,522,000
Catholic shareof the people living within its bounds
0.6%
Priests
32
Catholics per priest
6,718
Extent
178,341 km²
Catholics per km²
1.2

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Bishop
Joseph Arshad
Born
25 August 1964
Birthplace
Lahore

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

St. Joseph's Cathedral, Rawalpindi stands in Islamabad-Rawalpindi, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

The province of Lahore

A suffragan of Lahore.

The sees of this province:

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

The story of the Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi (Lat: Dioecesis Islamabadensis-Ravalpindensis), a Latin Church see in Pakistan, reaches back to 1887, when it was first erected as the Apostolic Prefecture of Kafiristan and Kashmir out of the Diocese of Lahore. In 1947 the prefecture was raised to a full diocese and took the name diocese of Rawalpindi.

How to reach it

Diocesan offices
Bishop’s House, Tameezuddin Church Rd., Lalkurti, Rawalpindi Cantt. 46000, Pakistan

This see keeps no website of its own, so the address of its diocesan offices is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.

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Sources

Wikipedia

Compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. Corrections: hello@catholicintelligence.com.