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Diocese of San Juan Bautista

Sancti Ioannis Baptistae a Missionibus

The Diocese of San Juan Bautista de las Misiones is a Latin rite suffragan see in southern Paraguay, erected in 1957 and covering the departments of Misiones and Ñeembucú. Its current ordinary, Ósmar Pedro López Benítez, was appointed in 2025.

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
19 January 1957
Latin
Sancti Ioannis Baptistae a Missionibus
Patron
Saint John the Baptist
Annuario code
001002913

The see in figures

Catholics
227,000
Population
201,000
Priests
30
Catholics per priest
7,567
Extent
21,703 km²
Catholics per km²
10

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
Osmar López Benítez
Born
14 June 1975
Birthplace
Maciel

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

Catedral San Juan Bautista stands in San Juan Bautista, 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 Asunción

A suffragan of Archdiocese of Asunción.

The sees of this province:

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

History

In the south of the ecclesiastical province of Asunción, a province that takes in all of Paraguay except the pre-diocesan missions, lies a suffragan Latin Catholic see, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Juan Bautista (de las Misiones), known in Latin as Dioecesis Sancti Ioannis Baptistae a Missionibus.

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Sources

The see's own website · Wikipedia · GCatholic

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