HAIMEN, Diocese of. - It is located in central-eastern China, north of the Blue River. It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 11 Aug. 1926, with territory detached from the mission of Nanking, which then comprised the entire civil province of Kiangsu, and was entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy. On 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese, suffragan of Nanking.
It has an area of 13,500 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a population of about 5,000,000 inhabitants, there were 39,744 Catholics and 175 catechumens. Besides the bishop, there were 42 Chinese priests and 3 foreign ones. The auxiliary staff consisted of 50 native sisters and 9 foreign ones, plus an unspecified number of catechists, teachers and baptizers, fairly large in previous years. The minor seminary had 13 students and the preparatory one likewise 13. At the regional seminary of Kiangsu in Zikawei, near Shanghai, the diocese of H. had 11 seminarians, 4 in philosophy and 7 in theology. Among the works, reduced and hindered by the war, were 4 middle schools with 493 pupils, 52 primary schools with 2,787 pupils and 75 schools of prayer and first elements with 1,247 listeners. There were also 2 orphanages with 41 inmates and 38 medical dispensaries, which during the 1946-47 period had given 35,875 consultations.
The Christian beginnings in this mission go back to the 17th century, when in 1638 the Jesuit Father Brancati reached the island of Tsungming, at the mouth of the Blue River, and found as a collaborator in his apostolate the Chinese physician Siu Ki-youn and as a benefactress Candida Hiu, also Chinese.
Bibliography4 works
Adamo Pucci