SUIFU, DIOCESE of. — In the southern part of Szechwan province, in west-central China.
It was erected as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Southern Szechwan on 24 January 1860, with territory taken from the vicariate of Eastern Southern Szechwan; it was divided for the first time on 10 August 1910 to establish the mission of Kienchang (v. NINGYUAN), and then on 19 July 1929 for the erection of Yachow (v. KIATING), to which it ceded further territory in 1933 and 1938. On 3 December 1924 it took its present name from the city of S. On 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Chungking. From the beginning, it has been entrusted to the Society for Foreign Missions of Paris.
It has an area of approximately 50,000 sq km. On 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 7,000,000 inhabitants, there were 13,846 Catholics; the foreign priests numbered 16 and the Chinese 40; there were 5 major seminarians and 15 minor seminarians; the foreign sisters numbered 9 and the Chinese 5. Among its institutions were 2 hospitals, 5 medicine dispensaries, 3 orphanages, and 27 schools with 1,531 pupils.
The present territory of S. formed part, from 1696 to 1856, of the single mission of Szechwan (v. CHENGYU), and then, from 1856 to 1860, of the mission of Eastern Southern Szechwan (v. CHUNGKING), and followed its ecclesiastical development. At the time of its erection it had numerous Christians, so much so that its first apostolic vicar, Mgr. Pier Maria Pichon (1860–71), founded the Seminary to obtain missionary personnel, whose lack prevented him from developing evangelization. His successors, Mgr. Leplay (1871–86) and Mgr. Marco Chatagnon (1887–1920), using indigenous and foreign personnel, were able to give effective impetus to missionary activity.