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 Chengchow (v.), on 28 Jan. 1935 it was raised to an apostolic vicariate and, on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, to a diocese suffragan to Kaifeng. It is entrusted to the Pious Society of St Francis Xavier for Foreign Missions of Parma.
It has an area of 25,000 sq. km., with 3,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 10,122 are Catholics. It has 24 churches, including 11 parishes, served by 8 diocesan and 25 regular priests, assisted by a female religious community. It also possesses an orphanage (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 254).
In 1909 the first Catholic missionary established himself 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 proclaimed throughout the region. Evangelization suffered an interruption during the Second World War owing to the confinement of missionaries in concentration camps; this interruption continues even at present because of the political conditions that have arisen in China.