Sendai, Diocese of

SENDAI, Diocese of. - Located on the island of Hondo, it comprises four civil prefectures, namely: Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori.

This mission was erected as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Hakodate on 5 February 1895, and on 27 April of the same year, once the ecclesiastical hierarchy had been established, it was elevated to a diocese.

On 15 August 1912 the three civil provinces of Niigata, Yamagata and Akita were detached from it, and these went to form part of the present apostolic prefecture of Niigata (v.); on 12 February 1915 the territory of today's vicariate of Sapporo was detached - except for the province of Oshima with the city of Hakodate - together with the Kuril Islands and the southern part of the Sakhalin Peninsula. On 9 March 1936, the diocese of Hakodate took the name of S., with the definitive transfer of the episcopal see to the city of the same name. By decree of Propaganda Fide dated 19 June 1952 the aforementioned civil province of Oshima with the city of Hakodate was detached from the diocese of S. and annexed to the vicariate of Sapporo.

The first to begin the work of evangelization in this region were the Jesuits. In 1891 the fathers of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris arrived there, to whom the merit of the missionary development and organization of S. is due. In 1928 the first Canadian Dominicans arrived there, and they fully replaced the fathers of the M.E.P. in the care and government of the diocese, until its passing to the Japanese secular clergy, which took place "de facto" on 16 January 1941 and "de jure" on 20 July 1950.

The population is 6,825,938. Catholics number 6,613. Protestants number 15,000, among whom the sects of the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, under the Japanese name "Nippon Kirisuto Kyokai", and the Methodists especially flourish. There are 10,000 Greek Orthodox. The missionary personnel is composed of 54 priests, of whom 11 are Cistercians; 47 brothers, of whom 39 are Japanese; 343 sisters; 11 major seminarians; 17 catechists; 7 doctors and 11 nurses. There are 7 orphanages; 6 pharmacies; 3 elementary schools; 7 middle schools; 6 higher schools. A newspaper entitled Taimatsu is published there, with a circulation of 1000 copies.

Edoardo Pecoraio