KAYING [MEIZHOU] (KIAYING), DIOCESE OF. - In the civil province of Kwangtung (southern China), erected as an apostolic prefecture on 20 Feb. 1929 by division of the mission of Swatow (v.) and entrusted to the Society for Foreign Missions of the United States of America (of Maryknoll); raised on 18 June 1935 to an apostolic vicariate and on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, to a diocese suffragan of Canton.
It has an area of 67,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a population of about 2,600,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 19,411 and catechumens 378. Besides the bishop, there were 30 priests, of whom 11 belonged to the Chinese secular clergy; in the minor seminary 36 students were studying, and in the regional seminary, located in Hong Kong (v.), there were 5 philosophers and 5 theologians for K. The sisters were 14, all American, but who, among other things, attended to the formation of a native female religious congregation, for which purpose they had gathered 17 young women. The catechists were 56 and the teachers 31. The territory, over which 19 churches and 13 chapels were scattered, was divided into 26 parishes and 314 secondary stations. There were moreover homes for the aged and 9 dormitories for students attending government schools; 16 elementary schools with 978 children, 15 of prayer and first elements with 1070 listeners.
The beginnings of Christianity in the region of K. are recent, going back only to 1845 and then to 1850 and 1861 through the work of Christians who had immigrated there from Malaya, Siam and Canton; in 1850 the first French missionaries were sent, who encountered many difficulties and some local persecution during the Franco-Chinese war (1884-85). Difficulties and sufferings were also experienced by the new American missionaries in the early years of World War II.
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Adamo Pucci