Catholic Intelligence

Diocese of Raiganj

Raigangen(sis)

Latin-rite diocese in northern West Bengal, India, erected 8 June 1978 from the Diocese of Dumka by detaching the West Dinajpur and Malda districts. A suffragan of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, its seat is St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral at Chotparua (inaugurated 2010), serving about 95,700 Catholics (2010).

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
8 June 1978
Latin
Raigangen(sis)
Patron
St. Joseph
Annuario code
001002713

The see in figures

Catholics
95,663
Population
7,814,142
Catholic share
1.2%

of the people living within its bounds

Priests
118
Catholics per priest
811
Extent
8,920 km²
Catholics per km²
11

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
Fulgence Aloysius Tigga
Born
3 March 1965
Birthplace
Katkahi

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 the Worker Cathedral, Chotparua stands in Raiganj, 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 Calcutta

A suffragan of Archdiocese of Calcutta.

The sees of this province:

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

History

On June 8, 1978, Pope Paul VI issued the Apostolic Bull Ut Petrus et Pastor, establishing this diocese at Raiganj in the Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India. Its territory, the districts of West Dinajpur and Malda, was detached from the Diocese of Dumka. West Dinajpur was later divided into the districts of North and South Dinajpur.

How to reach it

Chancery
Bishop’s House, Chotparua, P.O. Karnajora-733130, Uttar Dinajpur Dt., West Bengal, India
Telephone
865.3107.789

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.

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Sources

Wikipedia

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].