KINGHSIEN, DIOCESE of. — In China, in the southeastern part of the civil province of Hopeh. Erected as an apostolic prefecture on 24 April 1939, by division of the apostolic vicariate of Sienhsien, on 9 January 1947 it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Peking. Like the mother mission, it is entrusted to the Society of Jesus, which sends there religious from the Austrian province, who had been present in the area since 1926.
It covers an area of 9,500 sq km. On 30 June 1947, out of a population of approximately 2,500,000 inhabitants, there were 32,663 Catholics and 161 catechumens. Besides the bishop, there were 33 Fathers of the Society of Jesus, 6 of them Chinese, and 12 Chinese secular priests. Thirty-one students were studying in the preparatory seminary, 15 in the minor seminary, and 6 in the regional seminary, located at K.; there were also 5 scholastic brothers of the Society of Jesus. The auxiliary personnel consisted of 6 coadjutor brothers, 11 sisters, 9 of them Chinese, 33 catechists, and 27 teachers. The territory, divided into 18 parishes, had 319 Christian communities, with 30 churches, 162 chapels, and 127 oratories. The institutions included 1 boys’ college and 1 girls’ college and 18 dispensaries; the 15 elementary schools had 612 pupils, the only middle school had 65, and the 13 schools of prayer and elementary instruction had 92. The regional seminary, canonically erected there in 1941, serves, in addition to the diocese of K., the missions of Sienhsien, Taming, and Yungnien.
When, in May 1856, the civil province of Hopeh was divided into three distinct apostolic vicariates, that of southeastern Peking, based at Sienhsien and from which K. originated, was already fairly evangelized. In the territory now belonging to K., there were that year 27 Christian communities with 1,382 faithful; in 1888 the Christian communities had increased to 155 and the faithful to 7,452; in 1938, on the eve of K.’s erection, the Christian communities had risen to 293 and the faithful to 30,038, with 2,764 catechumens. The disturbances of recent years have caused, among other things, the closure of the colleges and schools.