LUAN [CHANGZHI], Diocese of. - The two civil provinces of Shansi and Shensi, in northern China, detached from the diocese of Peking on 15 Oct. 1696 and erected into a single apostolic vicariate, on 3 March 1844 were divided into two distinct vicariates, which took their names from those same provinces. On 17 May 1890 the apostolic vicariate of Shansi was subdivided into two: northern Shansi and southern Shansi. The latter, on 3 Dec. 1924, took the name of L. from the principal city, the seat of the Ordinary; on 17 June 1932 it ceded 13 civil subprefectures to give life to the mission of Hungtung (v.) and on 25 May 1936 it ceded another 22, with which the mission of Kiangchow (v.) was constituted. On 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, L. was elevated to a diocese suffragan of Taiyuan.
It has an area of 25,000 sq km. In 1948 it counted approximately 3,100,060 inhabitants, of whom 30,185 were Catholics, distributed in 20 parishes and 166 stations with 126 churches and chapels, served by 4 diocesan priests and 39 religious, assisted by 51 sisters.
Christianity was preached in the present territory of L., in the 18th century, by the Franciscans of Kiangchow; in the second half of the 19th century new centers of the faithful were established through the impetus of the coadjutor of the apostolic vicar Msgr. Moccagatta, Msgr. Gregorio Grassi, who died a martyr in 1900 and is today beatified, who sent into the region, now belonging to L., the Dutch Recollect Franciscans under the guidance of Fr. Poel. In the Boxer persecution (1900) on the territory of L., which then also included Hungtung and Kiangchow, 1,600 Christians were killed. The war from 1937 to 1945 and the political events that followed it have severely damaged the religious life of L.: the works and schools, once numerous and flourishing, all suspended and closed; the Fathers partly driven out, partly forced into inactivity in the large centers.
Bibliography4 works
Adamo Pucci