TSAOCHOW [HEZE], Diocese of. - In the south-western part of the province of Shantung, in northern China.

It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 12 Nov. 1934 with territory detached from the mission of Yenchow (v.) and entrusted, like the mother mission, to the Society of the Divine Word; on 11 Apr. 1946 it was raised to a diocese, suffragan of Tsinan. Over an area of 13,000 sq. km. it counted, as of 30 June 1950, about 4,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 74,013 were Catholics, 59 priests, among them 12 Chinese, 49 nuns, of whom 45 were native. It had 1 seminary, 6 schools, 32 works of charity and welfare.

The first evangelical preaching in the territory of T. came after the arrival of the Verbites in the southern region of Shantung, which took place in 1882. It was their first apostolic vicar, Msgr. Giovanni Battista von Anzer (1886-1904), who tried in vain to penetrate into T., just as the attempts of Fr. Giuseppe Freinademetz to enter Tsaohsien were also vain. At Changkiachwang, in 1897, Frs. Francesco Nies and Riccardo Henle were killed. Subsequently the mission took on considerable development: in 1934, the year of the creation of T., the Catholics numbered 47,000 and the catechumens 9,000, assisted by 33 priests, of whom 6 were Chinese.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: AAS, 27 (1935), pp. 362-63; Arch. di Prop. Fide. Incarto erec. T. 1934; Annuaire de l'Eglise cathol. en Chine 1948, Shanghai 1948, passim; MC, 1950, p. 320.

Adamo Pucci

@incollection{ec12_tsaochow_diocesi_di, author = {Pucci, Adamo}, title = {Tsaochow, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {588}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tsaochow-diocesi-di} }

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Tsaochow [Heze], Diocese of

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