Diocese of Bettiah
Bettiahen(sis)
Suffragan diocese · Latin Church · Bettiah, India
Latin rite diocese in Bihar, India, erected on 27 June 1998, restored from the Diocese of Muzaffarpur. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Patna, with the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bettiah as its seat.
The see
- Rank
- Suffragan diocese
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 27 June 1998
- Latin
- Bettiahen(sis)
- Annuario code
- 001000895
The see in figures
- Catholics
- 5,810
- Population
- 15,891,000
- Catholic share
- 0.0%
- Priests
- 66
- Catholics per priest
- 88
- Extent
- 16,089 km²
- Catholics per km²
- 0.4
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
- Peter Sebastian Goveas
- Born
- 8 February 1955
- Birthplace
- Hosabettu
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
Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bettiah stands in Bettiah, 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 Patna
A suffragan of Archdiocese of Patna.
The sees of this province:
- Archdiocese of PatnaPatna
- Diocese of BhagalpurBhagalpur
- Diocese of BuxarBuxar
- Diocese of MuzaffarpurMuzaffarpur
- Diocese of PurneaPurnea
On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.
History
Within India's ecclesiastical province of Patna, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bettiah (Latin: Bettiahen(sis)) is seated in the city of Bettiah. Among its communicants are the Bettiah Christians, one of the oldest ethnoreligious Christian communities in the northern Indian subcontinent. The diocese also embraces Newaris of the Catholic Christian faith, known as Newar Christians, who settled in Chuhari in the 1700s after being expelled from Nepal. Catholic Christian communities of scheduled castes and tribal people are likewise served by the diocese.
How to reach it
- Chancery
- Bishop’s House, Bettiah-845438, West Champaran, Bihar, India
- Telephone
- 790.395.3493; 947.228.2600
- [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].