SHUNKING, DIOCESE of. - In the central part of the province of Szechwan, in central-western China.
It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 2 Aug. 1929, with 7 civil subprefectures Chengtu (v.), and was entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy; on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was raised to a suffragan diocese of Chungking.
It has an area of approximately 25,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 7,000,000 inhabitants, there were 18,755 Catholics; 25 priests; 7 major seminarians and 40 minor seminarians; 12 sisters. Its institutions included 2 hospitals, 2 orphanages, and 44 schools.
Among the population entirely wiped out during the rebellion of Chang Hsieng-chung there were perhaps Christians brought to the faith by the Jesuits, who arrived in Szechwan in 1640. The evangelization of the settlers transferred to this territory from the provinces of Hupeh and Hunan was the work of the priests of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris, who, after 1690, arrived in the city of Anyo and its surroundings.