Brief history of the oldest and most populous Diocese in Pakistan
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The Lahore archdiocese is for many aspects the most important in Pakistan. The Vicariate Apostolic of Punjab was created in 1880 and it became a diocese in 1886, later elevated in 1994 as an archdiocese. It has an area of 23,069 sq. km and has three suffragan dioceses: Multan, Faisalabad and Islamabad-Rawalpindi. Out of a population of about 30 million, 95% Muslim, there are 506,000 Catholics (1.68%), about half all the Catholics in Pakistan.
The archdiocese has 25 parishes and 38 chapels or mission stations. There are 73 priests (35 diocesan and 38 religious, of whom 15 are Pakistani) 18 Brothers, 243 Sisters, 8 major diocesan seminarians, 50 religious seminarians; 8 lay missionaries, 182 catechists (142 full time).
The archdiocese has a seminary for philosophy and most of the religious congregations (9 male and 19 female) have a house here and many have their formation houses.
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