WEHWEI, DIOCESE OF. — In the northern part of Honan province, in central China.
It was erected as an apostolic vicariate on 1 September 1882 under the name of Northern Honan by division from that of Honan (q.V. NANYANG), which ceded all the territory of this province to the left of the Yellow River. On 3 December 1924 it received its present name from the city of W., the residence of the ordinary; on 7 July 1936 it ceded 12 civil subprefectures to establish the apostolic prefecture of Sinsiang (q.v.); on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Kaifeng. It has been entrusted since its beginning, like the mother mission, to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan. It covers an area of about 25,000 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, with a total population of about 3,600,000 inhabitants, there were 46,000 Catholics; 45 priests, of whom 14 were Chinese; 7 major seminarians, 25 minor seminarians; 59 sisters, of whom 50 were indigenous. Among the works were, besides the minor seminary, a hospital, 2 orphanages, 12 dispensaries, 4 foundling hospitals, 1 hospice for the incurably ill; 38 schools.
The first evangelical preaching in the territory of W. dates back to the early decades of the 18th century and was carried out by the Jesuits of Peking, especially in the subprefecture of Chantch, where in 1884 numerous faithful, descendants of that ancient and strong Christianity, were found by the missionaries of Milan. These, having established the center of their activity at Siaochwang, were nevertheless able to gather very few fruits from their work: hindered by the local mandarin, who warned them against remaining in the place, they had to hide during the Boxer persecution, which wrought havoc everywhere and in the subprefecture of Wuan burned the church and massacred several tens of Christians. But after that bloody date (1900) the mission changed its aspect and became one of the most flourishing and rich in adult baptisms: in the second decade of the present century the principal seat of the mission was transferred to W.