FUKUOKA, DIOCESE of. - It was erected by an apostolic brief of 16 July 1927, through the division of the diocese of Nagasaki, and until 1940 remained entrusted to the priests of the Society for the Foreign Missions of Paris. On 16 March 1941 it was entrusted to the Japanese secular clergy. It is suffragan to the archdiocese of Tokyo. Situated in the region of Kyushu, southern Japan, it comprises three civil districts: F., Kumamoto, and Saga.
F. is today the most important city in Kyushu, of which it is considered the capital. It is also the seat of an interdiocesan major seminary, canonically erected by decree of Propaganda Fide in 1948 for students from the missions of southern Japan studying philosophy and theology. This institution already has 60 seminarians. F. also possesses a fine cathedral and a satisfactory episcopal residence. There are 12,293 Catholics, 1,228 catechumens, 8 native priests, 21 foreign priests, 5 native brothers, 2 foreign brothers, 157 native nuns, 30 foreign nuns, 41 catechists, 150 teachers, and 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 elderly with 78 residents, 3 poorhouses with 564 poor persons, 1 leper colony with 79 lepers, 4 hospitals, 4 secondary schools with 735 pupils, 5 middle schools with 1,738 pupils, 1 primary school with 180 pupils, 5 kindergartens, and 1 college with 13 pupils.
BBL.: AAS, 10 (1927), pp. 377-78. Edoardo Pecorzio