WUCHANG, Diocese of. - In the south-eastern part of the province of Hupeh, in central China.
It was erected as an apostolic prefecture on 12 Dec. 1923, with 6 civil sub-prefectures from the apostolic vicariate of Eastern Hupeh, which on that same date took the name of apostolic vicariate of Hankow; on 31 May 1930 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate; on 7 Dec. 1939 it underwent a boundary adjustment with the mission of Kichow; on 11 Apr. 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese, suffragan of Hankow. From the outset it has been entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor, which, for the missionary work, sends there the religious of the regular province of Cincinnati.
Area approx. 10,000 sq. km., with approx. 2,500,000 inhabitants, of whom Catholics number 11,293; priests 25 (11 Chinese); nuns 58 (34 Chinese); 1 hospital, 3 medicine dispensaries, 1 orphanage, 16 schools (30 June 1947).
As in the mother mission of Hankow, so in the territory of W. the first traces of the preaching of the Gospel go back to the 17th century, through the work of the Jesuits. But this was something sporadic, stifled by persecutions. In 1835 the Bl. Perboyre found a total of 200 faithful in the three cities of Hankow, Hanyang and W. Just outside the walls of W. the Bl. Clet (18 Feb. 1820) and the Bl. Perboyre (11 Sept. 1840) were martyred. Only after the era of the treaties (1844-60) and especially after 1900 did the movement toward the Catholic Church become more pronounced. At the time of its erection as an apostolic prefecture W. counted 2,748 faithful.
Bibliography7 works
Adamo Pucci