TSINING [JINING], Diocese of. - Situated on the borders of the two provinces of Suiyuan and Chahar in Mongolia, it has an area of 40,000 sq km and a population of 600,000 inhabitants.
On 8 February 1929 the apostolic vicariate of T. was erected, by separation from that of Siwantze. The same vicariate was elevated to a diocese on 11 April 1946. It has 38,500 Catholics with 326 catechumens; 64 native priests; 11 major seminarians; 100 native sisters. The territory, of which T. today occupies the center, belongs to the semi-mountainous region which rises — a mighty buttress — in defense of the Mongolian plateau.
At first the country was inhabited only by Mongols, devoted solely to pastoralism, and apart from a few groups of tents and wretched houses, the region contained only rare and tiny centers of commercial exchange. After 1750 some Christian families established their dwelling at T. Later, other Christians founded three other small villages, where some families coming from the East joined them. In 1892 the first missionaries of Scheut, attracted by the possibilities of settlement and culture of the region, made a first attempt to purchase plots of land sufficient for the settlement of colonists. The attempt failed. The experiment was resumed in 1895 by Fr. Rubbens and was crowned with success, thanks to the support of the mandarins. The mission, in full observance of the legal formalities, resold in parcels to Chinese colonists, who had come from the various Christian communities, the lands purchased from the Mongols, to whom, however, the right of pasture for their flocks was reserved. Thus in four stages, from 1895 to 1925, numerous Christian communities were established, settled in villages of an agricultural character. During the period between 1906 and 1910 it was the cultivators themselves who invited the missionaries to settle in the new centers founded by them, because such a presence conferred an element of order, of moral discipline and of union necessary to the prosperity of the undertaking. This was also observed by journalists and travelers who went to observe the work of the missionaries.
The Christianly social and charitable action carried out by the Fathers of Scheut had its crowning when in 1933 the Pontiff raised a native to the episcopal dignity, Msgr. Giuseppe Heng-An Fan, and entrusted to him the apostolic vicariate of T. (today a diocese).
Bibliography6 works
Edoardo Pecoraio