The

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Diocese of Irapuato ( la, Dioecesis Irapuatensis) is a Latin

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

diocese in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of León in southern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Episcopal see is Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, at Irapuato, Guanajuato.

History

Established on 3 January 2004 as Diocese of Irapuato / Irapuaten(sis) (Latin adjective), on territories split off from the Diocese of León and the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Morelia. It was a

of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Luis Potosí until 25 November 2006. Luis Esteban Zavala Rodríguez, a diocesan priest, was condemned to 65 years and three months in prison and fined MXN $61,000 in January 2021 for raping a 12-year-old girl as she took catechism classes at a church in Irapuato. The diocese released a statement saying it was respectful of the civil authorities and committed to truth and transparency, "as well as to respect and protection of any person, without discrimination, particularly with children, adolescents, and young people, and with vulnerable people ”.

Statistics

As per 2014, it pastorally served 1,427,998 Catholics (98.4% of 1,451,090 total) on 4,775 km² in 68 parishes and 38 missions with 168 priests (123 diocesan, 45 religious), 2 deacons, 278 lay religious (50 brothers, 228 sisters) and 75 seminarians.

Bishops

(all

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...

)

Episcopal ordinaries

;''Suffragan Bishops of Irapuato'' *

José de Jesús Martínez Zepeda José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

(2004.01.03 – retired 2017.03.11), previously

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Naratcata (1997.03.11 – 2004.01.03) as Auxiliary Bishop of México (City, capital of

) (1997.03.11 – 2004.01.03) * Enrique Díaz Díaz (2017.03.11 – ...), previously Titular Bishop of Izirzada (2003.04.30 – 2014.05.15) as Auxiliary Bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico) (2003.04.30 – 2014.05.15), next

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

of San Cristóbal de las Casas (2014.05.15 – 2017.03.11).

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

José Guadalupe Torres Campos José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in 2005 *

Francisco González Ramos Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

, appointed Bishop of Izcalli, México in 2014

References

Sources and external links

GCatholic, with Google photo - data for all sections
* Roman Catholic dioceses in Mexico

Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of León As of October 5, 2021, the Catholic Church in its entirety comprises 3,171 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,248 dioceses, as well as apostolic vicariates, apostolic exarchates, apostolic administrations, apo ...

Religious organizations established in 2004 Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, tran ...

Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 21st century {{Mexico-RC-diocese-stub