Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Notes on the Metropolitan Province of Montes Claros, Brazil - 2001

On 25 April 2001, it was made public that the Holy Father had erected the ecclesiastical province of Montes Claros, Brazil, from the ecclesiastical provinces of Brasília and Diamantina, elevating the same episcopal see (previously a suffragan of Diamantina) to metropolitan church, and assigning as suffragans the dioceses of Janaúba (previously a suffragan of Diamantina), Januária (previously under Diamantína), and Paracatu (previously under Brasília). He appointed Bishop Geraldo Majela de Castro, O.Praem., of Montes Claros, as first metropolitan archbishop of the new ecclesiastical province. The archbishop-elect was born in Montes Claros in 1930, ordained to the priesthood in 1953, and raised to the order of bishop in 1982.

- CT (based on VIS and the Sala Stampa bulletin of 25 March 2001)