SHUNTEH [XINGTAI], 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 of the apostolic vicariate of Chengting (v.) and was entrusted to the Congregation of the Mission, which, for the missionary work, sends there the religious of the Polish regular province, who had been on the spot since 1929. It was elevated to a vicariate on 13 Jan. 1944 and then to a diocese, suffragan of Peking, on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China.

It has an area of 4,872 sq km. As of 30 June 1947, out of a total population of about 2,000,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 20,500; 14 were foreign priests and 8 Chinese; 1 indigenous lay brother; 32 nuns, of whom 23 were Chinese. The works, among which a hospital with an ophthalmology department is very well known, had already been destroyed or closed because of the communist advance, as of the aforementioned date. The Christian communities, with few exceptions, are of recent date: about 2,000 converts between 1860 and 1900, the others even later. At the time of the erection of the mission, in 1933, the faithful numbered about 15,000.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: AAS, 22 (1933), pp. 486-87; 36 (1944), pp. 204-205; GM, p. 207; Annuaire de l'Église catholique en Chine 1948, Sciangai 1948, passim; MC, 1950, p. 313.

Adamo Pucci

@incollection{ec11_shunteh_diocesi_di, author = {Pucci, Adamo}, title = {Shunteh, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {504}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/shunteh-diocesi-di} }

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Shunteh [Xingtai], Diocese of

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