WEIHWEI, DIOCESI of. — In the northern part of Honan Province, in central China.
It was erected as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Northern Honan on 1 September 1882, by division from that of Honan (v. NANYANG), which ceded to it the whole 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 Sinsiang (v.); on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Kaifeng. From the beginning, like the mother mission, it has been entrusted to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan. It covers approximately 25,000 sq. km. On 30 June 1947, out of a total population of approximately 3,600,000 inhabitants, there were 46,000 Catholics; 45 priests, of whom 14 were Chinese; 7 major seminarians and 25 minor seminarians; 50 sisters, of whom 50 were indigenous. Among its institutions were, in addition to the minor seminary, 1 hospital, 2 orphanages, 12 dispensaries, 4 foundling homes, 1 hospice for incurables; and 38 schools.
The first evangelical preaching in the territory of W. dates back to the first decades of the eighteenth century and was carried out by the Jesuits of Peking, especially in the subprefecture of Chantch, where in 1884 the missionaries from Milan found numerous faithful descended from that ancient and vigorous Christian community. Having established the center of their activity at Siaochwang, they were nevertheless able to gather very few fruits from their work: opposed by the local mandarin, who warned them not to remain there, they had to hide during the persecution of the Boxers, who inflicted devastation almost everywhere and, in the subprefecture of Wuan, burned the church and massacred several dozen Christians. But after that bloody date (1900), the mission changed in character and became one of the most flourishing and richest in adult baptisms: in the second decade of the present century, the principal seat of the mission was transferred to W.
BIRL.: AAS, 17 (1925), p. 24; GM, p. 212; G.B. Tragella, Italia Mission., Rome-Milan 1939, pp. 201-206; Annuaire de l'Egl. cath. en Chine 1948, Shanghai 1948, passim; MC, 1950, pp. 351-52. Adamo Pucci