FUKUOKA, DIOCESE. - It was erected by apostolic brief of 16 July 1927 by division of the diocese of Nagasaki, and until 1940 it remained entrusted to the priests of the Society for Foreign Missions of Paris. On 16 March 1941 it was entrusted to the Japanese secular clergy. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Tokyo. Situated in the Kyushu region, in southern Japan, it comprises three civil districts: F., Kumamoto and Saga.
F. is today the most important city of Kyushu, of which it is considered the capital. It is also the seat of a major interdiocesan seminary, canonically erected by decree of the Propaganda Fide in 1948, for the students of the missions of southern Japan for the study of philosophy and theology. This institute already numbers 60 seminarians. F. also possesses a fine cathedral and a respectable episcopal residence. There are 12,293 Catholics, 1,228 catechumens, 8 native priests, 21 foreign priests, 5 native brothers, 2 foreign brothers, 157 native sisters, 30 foreign sisters, 41 catechists, 150 teachers, 27 major seminarians. There are 21 churches and 14 oratories, 5 foundling homes with 126 children, 8 orphanages with 504 children, 6 homes for the aged with 78 inmates, 3 almshouses with 564 poor, 1 leprosarium with 79 lepers, 4 hospitals, 4 higher schools with 735 pupils, 5 middle schools with 1,738 pupils, 1 primary school with 180 pupils, 5 nursery schools, 1 college with 13 pupils.
Bibliography
Edoardo Pecorzio