Roman Catholic Diocese of Mayagüez


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mayagüez is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and consists of the western part of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth. The diocese is led by a prelate bishop, who pastors the motherchurch in the City of Mayagüez, Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria in front of the Plaza Colón.
The See of Mayagüez was canonically erected on March 1, 1976 and is a suffragan diocese of the Metropolitan Province of San Juan de Puerto Rico. The Diocese is subdivided into 29 Parishes: 17 originally located at the Diocese of Ponce, eight formerly at the Diocese of Arecibo, and four new parishes.
As of July, 2011 the bishop of the See of Mayagüez was Alvaro Corrada del Rio, SJ. He retired on May 9, 2020, and Ángel Luis Ríos Matos was appointed at that time to succeed him.

Ordinaries

The list of the Bishops of Mayagüez and their tenures of service:
  1. Bishop Ulises Aurelio Casiano Vargas
  2. Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio, S.J.
  3. Bishop Ángel Luis Ríos Matos, Bishop-elect

    Schools

By the year 2004 its population consisted of 491,518 people, of which 376,000 were baptized, being 76.5% of the total population.

San Juan Bankruptcy and loss of assets

On September 7, 2018, following a similar ruling by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, US Bankruptcy Judge Edward Godoy ruled that the bankruptcy filed by the Archdiocese of San Juan would also apply every other Puerto Rican Catholic Diocese, including Mayagüez. The Diocese of Mayagüez had unsuccessfully filed a motion to stop the seizure of its assets.