Pelotas, Diocese of (PELOTASENSIS), in Brazil, suffragan to Porto Alegre. By a decree of Pius X, dated 15 Aug., 1910, the See of Sao 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 south-eastern portion of Rio Grande do Sul. It includes most of the territory lying near the Lagoa Miri, 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 São Gongalo. Pelotas, a centre 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 south-east, has about 20,000 inhabitants. The other chief centres of population are at Bagé, Sao Lourenco, Sao José do Norte, and Boqueirão. The population is almost entirely Catholic.
GALANTI, Compendio de historia do Brazil, III, IV (Sao Paulo, 1902-05). A.
A. A. Macerlean.