Diocese of Machala
Machalen(sis)
Suffragan diocese · Latin Church · Machala, Ecuador
Latin-rite diocese seated in Machala, El Oro Province, Ecuador, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Cuenca. Established on 26 July 1954 as the Territorial Prelature of El Oro from territory of the Dioceses of Guayaquil and Cuenca, it was elevated to the Diocese of Machala on 31 January 1969. Its cathedral is the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Merced in Machala.
The see
- Rank
- Suffragan diocese
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 1954
- Latin
- Machalen(sis)
- Patron
- Nuestra Señora de la Natividad de Chilla
- Annuario code
- 001002094
The see in figures
- Catholics
- 485,000
- Population
- 512,000
- Catholic share
- 94.7%
- Priests
- 38
- Catholics per priest
- 12,763
- Extent
- 5,819 km²
- Catholics per km²
- 83
of the people living within its bounds
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
- Vicente Horacio Saeteros Sierra
- Born
- 6 April 1968
- Birthplace
- Santa Ana
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 de Nuestra Senora de la Merced, Machala stands in Machala, 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 Cuenca
A suffragan of Archdiocese of Cuenca.
The sees of this province:
- Archdiocese of CuencaCuenca
- Diocese of AzoguesAzogues
- Diocese of LojaLoja
On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.
History
What began on July 26, 1954, as the Territorial Prelature of El Oro, formed from territory of the Dioceses of Guayaquil and Cuenca, was raised on January 31, 1969, to become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Machala (Latin: Dioecesis Machalensis). It is seated in the city of Machala, within the ecclesiastical province of Cuenca in Ecuador.
How to reach it
- Chancery
- Calle Guayas 17-18 entre 25 de Junio y Rocafuerte, Machala, El Oro, Ecuador
- Telephone
- [07]2932.851
- [email protected]
This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery 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.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].