FUNING, Diocese of. - It belongs to the civil and ecclesiastical province of Fukien, in central-eastern China. It was erected, with the rank of apostolic vicariate, on 27 Dec. 1923 with territory detached from the mission of Foochow and was entrusted to the Preachers of the province of the Most Holy Rosary in the Philippine Islands; on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese, suffragan of Foochow; on 13 June of the same year the Dominicans ceded its government to the Chinese secular clergy. The residence of the Ordinary is in the city of Santuso, on the island of the same name.
It has an area of 14,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1948 the total population was estimated at 1,300,000 inhabitants; of these 27,326 were Catholics, 401 catechumens, 2,500 Protestants; the rest pagans. The missionary personnel properly so called numbered 15 Chinese secular priests, 14 Spanish Dominicans and 1 native. The minor seminarians were 35, the major ones (in the regional seminary at Foochow) 21. At Kesen, in the apostolic school for Dominican religious vocations, 37 students were gathered. There were 2 Chinese religious institutes for women and 2 foreign ones with 50 native sisters and 10 European ones: 48 catechists, 47 teachers and 1 doctor. The territory was divided into 5 districts with 21 primary stations and 44 secondary ones. The 45 prayer schools had 1,507 hearers and the elementary one 200 pupils. War, banditry, destitution and plague have marked a regression in some statistical data and in the works.
In the territory of this diocese are found the cities of Fuan and Muyang which recall the martyrdom of the b. Francesco de Capillas (1643) and the capture of the b. Pietro Sans (1747) and his companions (1748). For the Christian origins v. FOOCHOW.
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Adamo Pucci