Taiku, Apostolic Vicariate of

TAIKU, VICARIATO APOSTOLICO of. — Situated in the southeastern part of Korea, it has an area of 31,293 sq. km and a population of 6,400,000 inhabitants.

On 8 April 1911, the former apostolic vicariate of Korea was divided into two independent missions: the vicariate of Seoul (v.) and the vicariate of T., entrusted to the Society of the Foreign Missions of Paris. The evangelization of this territory dates back to the beginnings of Christianity in Korea. Indeed, the mission of T. already had 25,000 Catholics in 1911, who had risen to 31,457 by 1922; it also had a seminary (1913), a convent of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (1915), and a meeting house for Catholic Youth (1916). In 1927, that ecclesiastical circumscription was divided through the erection of two apostolic prefectures, namely those of Chon-ju and Kwang-ju. During the Second World War, the European Ordinary, who had resigned, was replaced by an apostolic administrator of Japanese nationality. After the war, a Korean priest succeeded the Japanese prelate in governing the mission, until, on 9 December 1948, the current apostolic vicar, Monsignor Giovanni Choe, was appointed, thereby definitively transferring the vicariate to the Korean secular clergy.

The number of Catholics is 44,706, with 3,111 catechumens. There are 125,000 Protestants; 1,200,000 Buddhists; 2,500,000 Confucianists and as many Taoists. The missionary personnel consists of 27 priests, of whom 25 are indigenous and 2 belong to the Foreign Missions of Paris; 102 sisters, of whom 92 are Korean, 3 French, and 7 American; 282 catechists; 111 teachers; 15 physicians; and 29 nurses. There are 9 hospitals; 2 dispensaries; 3 orphanages; a home for the elderly; a

(from Petit de Julleville, Hist. de la litt. française, Paris 1899, plate between pp. 381–42)
TAINE, HYPPOLITE – Portrait.

Fide, Prospectus status missionis, 1931–32, protocol position no. 5085/52. Edoardo Pecoraio