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 Dominicans 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 suffragan diocese of Foochow; on 13 June of the same year the Dominicans ceded its governance to the Chinese secular clergy. The residence of the ordinary is in the city of Santuano, 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 were Christians of other denominations, 2,500 were Protestants, and the rest pagans. The missionary personnel proper consisted of 15 Chinese secular priests, 14 Spanish Dominicans, and indigenous helpers. There were 35 minor seminaries, 21 major seminarians (in the regional seminary at Foochow), and at Kesen, in the apostolic school for Dominican religious vocations, 37 students were gathered. There were 2 Chinese and 2 foreign religious institutes for women, with 50 indigenous sisters and 10 Europeans; 48 catechists, 47 teachers, and 1 physician. The territory was divided into 5 districts with 21 primary stations and 44 secondary ones. The 45 prayer schools had 1,507 listeners, and the elementary school had 209 pupils. War, banditry, poverty, and plague have caused a decline in some statistical data and in the works.
In the territory of this diocese are the cities of Fuan and Muyang, which recall the martyrdom of Bl. Francis de Capillas (1643) and the capture of Bl. Peter Sanz (1747) and his companions (1748). For the Christian origins V. FOOCHOW.