LINTSING, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. – In the province of Shantung (north-eastern China). It was erected on 5 April 1931 with 13 civil subprefectures Tsinan (v.) and was entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy. As an apostolic prefecture, it depends directly on the Holy See.
As of 30 June 1947, out of approximately 2,000,000 inhabitants, there were 20,110 Catholics, served by 27 indigenous secular priests, 4 foreign Franciscans, 20 religious women, and 20 sisters.
It seems that b. Odorico da Pordenone preached in the territory of L. at the beginning of the 14th century; certainly Fr. Matteo Ricci passed through it in 1598 and 1600. In 1685 a Chinese official from L. invited the Jesuit Fr. Vallat by letter to come to L. to baptize 600 catechumens. The same missionary left an account of the fruits obtained at Tongchang. From 1701 until the persecution of Kienglong (1785), there were Italian Friars Minor missionaries, among whom Bernardino Della Chiesa, later bishop of Beijing, and Carlo Orazi da Castorano distinguished themselves. From 1785, when Franciscan personnel became unavailable, the Christians were visited occasionally by missionaries from neighboring regions and by secular priests, former students of the Chinese College of Naples (founded by ven. Matteo Ripa). Frequent persecutions nevertheless reduced the faithful to 1,800 in 1838. Following the creation of the apostolic vicariate of Shantung (1839), the Franciscans returned to the mission in the same year. In 1841, the apostolic vicar, Mgr. Moccagatta, established his residence at Shi-eul-li-chwang near Wucheng (in the territory of the present apostolic prefecture), and it was later transferred, for greater security, within the walls of Tsinanfu in 1863.