NAGASAKI, DIOCESI di. — A suffragan diocese of Tokyo, it is situated in the western part of the island of Kyushu. It comprises the entire civil prefecture of the same name, whose area is 4,192 sq km. This territory initially formed part of the diocese of Funai, erected in 1588; it then passed to the apostolic vicariate of Japan, erected in 1846, and to that of Northern and Southern Japan (20 June 1876). The latter was raised to the status of a diocese on 15 June 1891. After the diocese of Fukuoka had been separated from it, the remaining territory was entrusted to the Japanese secular clergy on 16 July 1927. The first indigenous bishop, Msgr. Gennaro K. Hayasaka, was consecrated in Rome by Pope Pius XI on the feast of Christ the King that year.
The first to sow the evangelical seed in this territory was St. Francis Xavier, in 1550. The Saint’s work was continued by Jesuit Fathers and brothers, and by 1552 there were already 200 Catholics in Hirado. Among these, the daimyo of Arima, Protasio Harunobu, and that of Omura, Bartolomeo Omura Sumitada, deserve mention; in 1582, together with the daimyo of Bungi, they sent an embassy to the Holy See, promoted by Fr. Alessandro Valignano. In 1593 the Franciscans established their residence in N. The Augustinians joined them in 1606 and the Dominicans in 1613. In 1587 the first edict prohibiting the Christian religion was issued, proclaimed by the sovereign Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1597 the twenty-five Japanese martyrs were crucified in N.; their eyewitness was Msgr. Pietro Martinez, bishop of Funai. The year 1863, after various persecutions, marked the beginning of the missionary revival through the work of Fr. Petit-Jean, of the Paris Foreign Missions. In 1865, near N., at Urakami, he discovered several thousand Christians, descendants of those of the seventeenth century, who had remained secretly faithful despite the absence of priests and any external assistance.
According to statistical calculations for 1950, the population reached 1,657,558 inhabitants, for the most part Buddhists and Shintoists. There were 63,170 Catholics, with 350 catechumens; approximately 3,000 Protestants; 44 secular priests, 40 of them Japanese; 17 regular priests; 27 brothers; 431 sisters, both foreign and native; 26 major and 77 minor seminarians; 402 catechists; 153 teachers; 47 sacred buildings; 36 parishes, 3 principal stations and 83 secondary ones; 3 hospitals; 5 orphanages; 2 homes for the elderly; 22 kindergartens; one elementary school; 3 middle schools; 3 high schools; and one vocational school. Two newspapers were published there: Catholic Kyolo, with a circulation of 13,500 copies, and Seibono Kishi, with 32,500 copies.