Parishes 23 Rite Latin Rite Country Guatemala | Denomination Roman Catholic Area 5,598 km² | |
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Metropolitan Oscar Julio Vian Morales, S.D.B. Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2014)
613,000
528,000 (86.1%) Established 10 March 1951 (66 years ago) Ecclesiastical province Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Guatemala | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Zacapa (y Santo Cristo de Esquipulas) is a Latin suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Guatemala.
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Its cathedral episcopal see is catedral San Pedro (dedicated to saint Peter), in Zacapa. It also had a virtual Co-cathedral, Basílica del Cristo Negro de Esquipulas, which is officially still the cathedral of the Territorial Prelature of Santo Cristo de Esquipulas.
History
It was erected 10 March 1951, as the Diocese of Zacapa, on terrotory split off from the Archdiocese of Guatemala (still its Metropolitan].
On 16 September 1956, it lost territory to establish the Territorial Prelature of Santo Cristo de Esquipulas, and again on 30 April 1968 to establish the then Apostolic Administration of Izabal.
It was (re)united aeque principaliter (in permanent personal union) with the Territorial Prelature of Santo Cristo de Esquipulas on 24 June 1986 and since assumed the name Diocese of Zacapa y Santo Cristo de Esquipulas.
It enjoyed a papal visit from Pope John Paul II in February 1996.