Luan, Diocese of

LUAN, DIOCESI di. - The two civil provinces of Shansi and Shensi, in northern China, separated

from the diocese of Peking on Oct. 15, 1696 and erected into a single apostolic vicariate, on March 3, 1844 were divided into two distinct vicariates, which took their names from the provinces themselves. On May 17, 1890 the apostolic vicariate of Shansi was subdivided into two: Northern Shansi and Southern Shansi. The latter, on Dec. 3, 1924, took the name of L. from the main city, seat of the Ordinary; on June 17, 1932 it ceded 13 civil sub-prefectures to give Hungtung (v.) and on May 25, 1936 it ceded another 22 Kiangchow (v.) was established. On April 11, 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, L. was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Taiyuan.

It has an area of 25,000 sq km. In 1948 it had approx. 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 nuns.

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 impulse of the coadjutor of the apostolic vicar Msgr. Moccagatta, Msgr. Gregorio Grassi, who died a martyr in 1900 and is now beatified, who sent to the region, now belonging to L., the Dutch Recollect Franciscans under the guidance of Fr. Poel. In the Boxer persecution (1900) in 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.: works and schools, formerly numerous and flourishing, are all suspended and closed; the Fathers are partly driven out, partly forced into inactivity in the major centers.