LOYANG, Diocese of. — In the north-western part of the civil province of Honan, in northern China. Erected as an apostolic prefecture on 25 May 1929 with 16 civil sub-prefectures detached from the apostolic vicariate of Chengchow (v.), on 28 January 1935 it was raised to the status of an apostolic vicariate and on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, to a diocese suffragan of Kaifeng. It is entrusted to the Pious Society of St Francis Xavier for the Foreign Missions of Parma.
It has an area of 25,000 sq km, with a population of 3,000,000, of whom 10,122 are Catholics. It has 24 churches, 11 of which are parishes, served by 8 diocesan priests and 25 regular clergy, assisted by a community of religious women. It also possesses an orphanage (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 254).
In 1909 the first Catholic missionary settled in the present territory of L., and only in 1912 did systematic preaching begin in the civil sub-prefectures, until in 1929 the Gospel was preached throughout the region. Evangelisation suffered a halt during the Second World War due to the confinement of missionaries in concentration camps; this halt continues at present because of the political conditions prevailing in China.