ICHOW [LINYI], Diocese of. - Erected as an apostolic vicariate on 1 July 1937 by division of the apostolic vicariate of Tsingtao, in the civil province of Shantung, in northern China, it remained entrusted to the Fathers of the Society of the Divine Word, who had been working there since 1925 in a manner de facto autonomous from those of the mother mission; on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese, suffragan of Tsinan.
It has an area of about 18,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a population of about 4 million inhabitants, Catholics numbered 20,277 and catechumens 174. Besides the bishop, there were 25 German Verbite fathers and 2 Chinese secular priests; 3 German coadjutor brothers; 42 sisters, of whom 38 were Chinese. In the intermission seminary of Yenchow, 3 students of philosophy and 3 of theology were studying for I. Earlier statistics reported a large number of catechists, teachers, baptizers and nurses; 10 churches and 185 chapels, 2 hospitals, 6 medical dispensaries, 1 home for the aged, 2 orphanages; 7 elementary schools, 2 for catechists and 33 for first elements and prayer. But the mission has suffered greatly, in personnel and in works, during the last war and in particular in the civil war.
The beginnings of evangelical preaching date back to 1883 through the work of Msgr. de Anzer, then apostolic vicar of southern Shantung (v. YENCHOW), a mission that also included the present territory of I., and of Fr. Joseph Freinademetz, who died in the odor of sanctity in 1908. After the difficulties of the First World War the evangelization resumed and flourished, so much so that it led to the erections of Tsingtao (v.), in June 1928, and of I. in 1937.
Bibliography3 works
Adamo Pucci