Pelotas, Diocese of (PELOTASENSIS), in Brazil, suffragan to Porto Alegre. By a decree of Pius X, dated August 15, 1910, the See of Sâo Pedro do Rio Grande was erected into an archbishopric under the title of Porto Alegre (q.v.) and given four suffragans, three of which were detached from the old diocese. One of these, Pelotas, was formed from twenty-four parishes in the southeastern portion of Rio Grande do Sul. It includes most of the territory lying near the Lagoa Mirí, and the lower half of the Lagoa dos Patos. The cathedral church of the new diocese, dedicated to St. Francis of Paula, is at Pelotas, a well-constructed, handsome city, situated on the Sâo Gonçalo. Pelotas, a center of commercial activity, especially in the cattle trade, contains about 25,000 inhabitants, and has a Jesuit college. Rio Grande, its seaport, twenty-six miles to the southeast, has about 20,000 inhabitants. The other chief centers of population are at Bagé, Sâo Lourenço, Sâo José do Norte, and Boqueirâo. The population is almost entirely Catholic.
A. A. MACERLEAN