HINGANFU, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. — Situated in the southern part of the civil province of Shensi, in northern China, it was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 28 March 1928, with territory detached Hanchung (v.) ASIA (v.), and was entrusted to the Italian Conventual Friars Minor, who had been present in the area since 1924. As an apostolic prefecture, it depends directly on the Holy See.
It has an area of 43,000 sq km. On 30 June 1949, out of a total population of approximately 1,500,000 inhabitants, there were 3,756 Catholics and 2,119 catechumens; approximately 100,000 Muslims and 1,000 Protestants, the remainder being pagans. The missionary personnel consisted of 3 Chinese secular priests and 12 Conventual religious priests, 7 of them indigenous. The auxiliary personnel included 1 Italian Conventual lay religious, 21 sisters, all Chinese, and several catechists and teachers. There were 15 seminarians in the minor seminary and 2 in the regional seminary of Kaifeng, in Honan. The institutions included 1 hospital with 28 beds; 3 medical dispensaries; 2 orphanages with 21 girls; and 1 home for the elderly with 12 residents. There were 7 churches, 12 chapels, 5 primary stations, and 24 secondary stations.
Evangelical preaching is of very recent date: in the part of the territory taken from Hanchung, there were only a few elderly Christians originating from Hupeh province when Fr. Domenico Callerio, of the Pontifical Seminary of SS. Pietro e Paolo for Foreign Missions, assisted by a Chinese priest, was able to begin his ministry at H. in 1898. Shortly afterward, Fr. Alberico Crescitelli, of the same seminary, also worked in the Christian community of Ngoukikou; he was killed out of hatred for the faith on 20 July 1900 in the mission of Hanchung. In the part of the territory taken from Sian, the Christian beginnings are even more recent, dating only from 1920. The Conventuals set to
work with zeal and achieved satisfactory results. They nevertheless encountered difficulties and suffered losses, including the first apostolic prefect, Fr. Giovanni Soggiu, who was killed by bands of brigands on 10 November 1930, and the second apostolic prefect, Fr. Berardo Baracciu, who died in September 1940 in a Japanese air raid on H.