Paoting [Baoding], Diocese of

PAOTING [BAODING], Diocese of. - In northern China, in the central-western part of the province of Hopeh. It was erected as an apostolic vicariate, under the name of Central Celi, on 14 February 1910, by division of that of Northern Celi, and was entrusted to the French Lazarists.

On 15 April 1924 it ceded five civil subprefectures, which together with a sixth taken from Chengting (v.) gave rise to the mission of Lihsien, today Ankwo (v.). On 3 December 1924 it changed its name to the present one; in 1931 it passed to the Chinese secular clergy and on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese suffragan of Peking.

It has an area of 12,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of about 2,000,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 79,000, priests 72, of whom 7 were French Lazarists; major seminarians 8; lay religious 2 and nuns 85, of whom only 7 were foreign. Among the works were 1 hospital, 2 medicine dispensaries, 1 orphanage, 1 workshop. The schools were all closed. In 1899 the mission counted 12,000 Christians, of whom 2,000 were massacred by the Boxers in 1900; in 1902 they had returned to 12,700, in 1905 they rose to 26,283 and in 1910, the year of the erection of P., to 72,531, partly ceded to Lihsien in 1924. Thus the greatest development of Christianity at P. occurred in the first half of our century.

Adamo Pucci