Sining [Xining], Apostolic Prefecture of

SINING [XINING], APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - It comprises the entire civil province of Tsinghai or Kokonor, in central-western China.

It was erected, with the name of S. from the capital city, residence of the Ordinary, on 4 February 1937, and was entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word. Its territory had until then belonged to the mission of Lanchow (v.). It has an area of approximately 700,000 sq km. As of 30 June 1948, out of a total population of approximately 1,500,000 inhabitants, Catholics numbered 3,722 and catechumens 1,376; priests 12, of whom 1 was Chinese; major seminarians 1, minor seminarians 16; sisters 22, of whom 12 were native; catechists 16, teachers 12. Among the works were 1 hospital, 4 medicine dispensaries, 1 orphanage, 1 foundling home, 8 schools.

It seems that in the 6th-8th centuries the preaching of Nestorian missionaries reached these regions; that in the 16th century the Jesuits arrived there, followed in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Franciscans, but these were perhaps some missionaries who had taken refuge in those distant and tranquil lands to escape persecution. Preaching properly so called begins with the arrival of the missionaries of Scheut, who, having arrived in 1878, remained there until 1922, when they moved on into Mongolia, leaving the mission of Kansu, to which the province of Kokonor was joined, to the Verbiti religious, who had been on the spot for about ten years.

Adamo Pucci