Asian Catholic Dioceses Directory

In a land area of 25, 000 square kilometers, the diocesan territory covers revenue districts of Bhopal, Harda, Hoshangabad and Sehore.

Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh and is the main rail junction of Central India.

The city hogged international attention after the worst industrial disaster when the Union Carbide plant leaked deadly methyl isocyanate gas during the night of Dec. 3, 1984, which claimed over 20,000 lives and affected more than 500,000 people.

It has two beautiful big lakes and has small hills within its boundaries.

With a land area of 10,103.4 square kilometers, the diocesan territory covers civil districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane and Raigad.

Bombay or Mumbai is the biggest city in the archdiocese, and in India too. Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad are other important towns in the territory.

The diocesan land area of 29, 857 square kilometers includes West Bengal's major urban centers – Kolkata, Kharagpur and Haldia port. The total population of 34,656,781 is a mix of ethnicities and religions.

Archdiocese of Delhi comprises the state of Delhi and districts of Gurgaon, Rohtak, Mahendragarh, Sonepat, Faridabad, Nuh, Jhajjar and Rewari in Haryana state.

Suffragan dioceses are Jammu-Srinagar, Jalandhar, Simla and Chandigarh.

Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat state and one of the greenest cities in the world. The Church in Gandhinagar is relatively new with almost all the Christians being second or first generation. The Catholics here are mainly migrants and work in the government sector. The Unteshwari Mata shrine, one of the Marian shrines here, is a pilgrimage center where thousands throng for its annual dance festival.

In a land area of 4,286.80 square kilometers, the diocesan territory covers the provincial state of Goa and the Union territories of Daman and Diu in Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli in Maharashtra.

Panjim is the biggest city in the archdiocese. Margoa and Vasco are other important towns in the territory.

In a land area of 17, 551 square kilometers, the diocesan territory covers civil districts of Kamrup, Goalpara, Nalbari, Nagaon, Morigaon and Baksa in the state of Assam.

Guwahati is the biggest city in the diocese. Dispur and Nagaon are other important towns in the territory.

In a land area of 30,814 square kilometers, the archdiocesan territory covers urban district of Hyderabad, which is also the capital of Telangana, the semi-urban district of Ranga Reddy and the districts of Medak and Nizamabad.

The Hyderabad mission had its beginning in 1646 with the arrival of the Portuguese and became an independent vicariate in 1845.  Msgr Daniel Murphy, an Irish priest, was the first vicar apostolic. The vicariate then had a total population of 12 million and the Catholics were around 4,000. The Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME) missioners were among the first to work in the vicariate.

Pope Leo XIII made a proclamation on Aug. 1, 1886, converting all the vicariates in India into dioceses and making all vicars apostolic residential bishops. Thus, Hyderabad became a diocese and Msgr Peter Caprotti, PIME, became the first bishop of Hyderabad. Hyderabad was raised to the status of an archdiocese on Sept. 19, 1953, and Bishop Joseph Mark Gopu was appointed the first archbishop.