FENYANG, Diocese of. - In northern China, in the civil province of Shansi. It was erected with the rank of apostolic vicariate on 12 May 1926, with territory detached from the mission of Taiyuan, and was entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy; on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was raised to a diocese, suffragan of Taiyuan.
It has an area of 84,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of 2,100,000 inhabitants, it counted 15,000 Catholics. The missionary personnel, besides the bishop, consisted of 29 Chinese priests and 7 foreign ones. The minor seminary, on the spot, had 28 students; for higher studies the diocese made use of the regional seminary of Suanhwa, entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy, where it had 7 theology students and 4 philosophy students.
From the statistics of previous years there appeared, among the auxiliary missionary personnel, 4 religious of the Congregation of the Little Brothers of St. John the Baptist, about twenty catechists and about fifty teachers. Ecclesiastically the territory was divided into 5 districts and counted 18 principal stations and 243 secondary ones; it had 35 churches and 45 oratories or chapels. The 4 lower schools and the 46 schools of doctrine and first elements counted over 1000 students. There were also 5 catechumenates, 2 orphanages and 1 hospice for the aged. The wars have dispersed the personnel and destroyed the works.
The mission, made up for the most part of neophytes, developed after the persecution of the Boxers (1900), of which fell victims, precisely in the territory now belonging to the diocese of F., the two bishops Gregorio Grassi and Francesco Fogolla (raised to the honor of the blessed on 24 Nov. 1946) and the Chinese priests Pietro Chao, Paolo Kung, Pietro Lei and Andrea Wang with numerous Christians.
Bibliography4 works
Adamo Pucci