SHUNTEH, DIOCESE of. - In the south-western part of the province of Hupeh, in northern China.
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 2 March 1933, with 6 civil sub-prefectures Chengting (v.), and was entrusted to the Congregation of the Mission, which, for missionary work there, sent religious from the Polish regular province, who had been on the spot since 1929. It was raised to a vicariate on 13 Jan. 1944 and then to a diocese, suffragan of Pechino, on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China.
It covers an area of 4,872 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approx. 2,000,000 inhabitants, there were 20,500 Catholics; 14 foreign priests and 8 Chinese; 1 native lay brother; 32 sisters, 23 of them Chinese. The works, among which a hospital with an ophthalmic department was very well known, had already been destroyed or closed because of the Communist advance by the above-mentioned date. The Christian communities, with few exceptions, are of recent origin: approx. 2,000 converts between 1860 and 1900, the others still later. At the time of the erection of the mission, in 1933, the faithful numbered about 15,000.