HANCHUNG, DIOCESE OF
Hanchung is located in northern China in the southwestern part of the civil province of Shensi. It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 2 June 1887 through division of the apostolic vicariate of Shensi and was named the apostolic vicariate of Southern Shensi. It was entrusted to the Seminary of SS. Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome for Foreign Missions. On 3 December 1924 it received the name of apostolic vicariate of Hanchungfu, and in 1926, with the establishment of the Seminary of SS. Apostles Peter and Paul together with the Institute of Foreign Missions of Milan, the mission of Hanchung passed to the new Pontifical Institute of SS. Apostles Peter and Paul and SS. Ambrose and Charles for Foreign Missions. In 1928 it ceded part of its territory for the erection of the apostolic prefecture of Hanganfu. On 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, Hanchung was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Sian.
It has an area of 16,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1949, out of a total population of 1,500,000, Catholics numbered 18,679, catechumens 414, Protestants 2,000, Muslims 50,000, the rest being pagans, Buddhists, Taoists, or Confucians. In addition to the Italian bishop, there were 25 Italian priests and 8 Chinese secular priests. In the preparatory seminary there were 12 students, 36 in the minor seminary, and 2 in the regional seminary of Honan with its seat in Kaifeng. Among auxiliary personnel were 2 Italian lay brothers, 51 sisters (15 Italian and the rest Chinese), 23 catechists, 91 teachers, 20 baptizers, and 2 physicians. Across the vast territory, divided into 14 districts, there were 14 primary stations and 107 secondary ones, 22 churches, and 72 oratories or chapels. The works included 1 hospital with 50 beds, 6 medical dispensaries, 3 orphanages with 148 girls, 2 old people’s homes with 44 residents, 1 leper colony with 18 patients, 2 foundling homes with 41 children, 1 boys’ college with 16 pupils and 1 girls’ college with 22 pupils, and 1 kindergarten with 63 children. The 20 elementary schools had a total of 1,883 pupils, and the 22 middle schools had 440 students.
The Christian origins of Hanchung are linked to those of all Shensi, ASIA (v.). Among the Jesuit Fathers who worked here in the 17th century, mention must be made of Fabre and Motel, the former of whom died a few kilometers from Hanchung in a reputation for holiness (1659); among the Franciscan Fathers, who succeeded the Jesuits, the blessed John of Triora (d. 1816) and Martinelli, who was arrested here in 1860 and taken prisoner to Canton. After the erection of the autonomous mission, its true founder and organizer was Msgr. Pius Joseph Passerini, belonging to the Seminary of SS. Peter and Paul in Rome, who governed the vicariate from 1895 to 1918. In the last thirty years the mission has suffered repeatedly in personnel and works due to raids and plundering by Communist soldiers, who had their headquarters in the mission of Yenan, in northern Shensi.