Taipei, Archdiocese of

TAIPEI, Archdiocese of. - Located in the northern part of the island of Formosa, erected on 30 Dec. 1949 with the rank of apostolic prefecture by division of the ancient prefecture of Formosa (today Kaoshung), and entrusted to the Chinese Congregation of the Disciples of the Lord.

The city of T., capital of the whole island, in the present circumstances has assumed the importance that Chungking had during the last war, because it has become the seat of the government of Chiang Kai-shek. On 7 Aug. 1952, the same apostolic prefecture became a metropolitan archdiocese, with Archbishop Msgr. Joseph Kuo, of the same Congregation. Numerous foreign missionaries, among them Jesuits and Franciscans, expelled from China, have moved to Formosa, as collaborators of the Ordinary of T., where the movement of conversions has marked a notable crescendo and, with the multiplication of centers of assistance and religious propaganda, will increase rapidly. On the same date, on the same island of Formosa, two other independent missions were erected:

1. Apostolic prefecture of Hwalien, constituted by the two civil subprefectures of Hwalienhsien and Taitunghsien, detached, the first from the archdiocese of T., and the second from the apostolic prefecture of Kaoshung, with a population of 433,784 inhabitants. Catholics number barely 500. This is a territory geographically isolated from the rest of the island, with only two roads of difficult access from the north and from the south. There are found native populations of a race different from the rest of the Chinese population, which immigrated, particularly in this last century, from nearby Amoy (province of Fukien), which have their own customs, live in isolation and, besides their own special dialects, speak Japanese, which had been taught them by their previous rulers. This new prefecture has been entrusted to the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris.

2. Apostolic prefecture of Kiay, constituted by the two civil subprefectures of Kiayhsien and Yuinlinhsien, situated in the northern part of the apostolic prefecture of Kaoshung, from which they have been detached, and immediately south of the archdiocese of T. This new mission, out of a population of 1,036,469 inhabitants, counts ca. 5000 Catholics and has been entrusted to the Chinese secular clergy.

Edoardo Pecoraro