Roman Catholic Diocese of Valdivia

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Valdivia (Valdivien(sis)) is a Latin Rite suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Concepción in Chile.

Its cathedral episcopal see is Catedral Nuestra Señora del Rosario, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, in the city of Valdivia, Los Ríos.

History

 * 14 June 1910: Established as Mission “sui iuris” of Valdivia, on territory split off from the Diocese of San Carlos de Ancud
 * 25 September 1924: Promoted as Apostolic Administration of Valdivia
 * 8 July 1944: Promoted as Diocese of Valdivia
 * Lost territory on 1955.11.15 to establish the Diocese of Osorno

Statistics
As per 2014, it pastorally served 145,500 Catholics (47.2% of 308,000 total) on 13,679 km² in 17 parishes with 27 priests (10 diocesan, 17 religious), 28 deacons, 60 lay religious (18 brothers, 42 sisters) and 2 seminarians

Ordinaries
(all Roman rite)
 * Ecclesiastical Superior of the independent mission
 * Augusto Klinke Leier (1910.06.19 – 1924.09.25)


 * permanent Apostolic Administrators of Valdivia
 * Apostolic Administrator ad nutum Sanctae Sedis Augusto Klinke Leier (1924.09.25 – 1928.11.14)
 * Teodoro Eugenín Barrientos, SSCC (1931.04.10 – 1942.06.20)


 * Suffragan Bishops of Valdivia
 * Arturo Mery Beckdorf (1944.07.29 – 1955.04.20), appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Concepción (Santissima Concezione)
 * José Manuel Santos Ascarza, OCD (1955.09.21 – 1983.05.03)
 * Alejandro Jiménez Lafeble (1983.12.12 – 1996.02.29)
 * Apostolic Administrator Sergio Otoniel Contreras Navia (1995.04.29 – 1996.09.08)
 * Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, SDB (1996.06.28 – 2001.07.10)
 * Ignacio Francisco Ducasse Medina (2002.05.31 – 8 June 2017)
 * Apostolic Administrator Fr. Gonzalo Espina Peruyero (26 August 2017 - 23 December 2020)
 * Santiago Jaime Silva Retamales (23 December 2020 - )

Sources and external links

 * GCatholic.org – data for all sections
 * Diocese website
 * Catholic Hierarchy