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 December 1923, comprising six civil sub-prefectures of the apostolic vicariate of Eastern Hupeh, which on the same date took the name of apostolic vicariate of Hankow; on 31 May 1930 it was raised to an apostolic vicariate; on 7 December 1939 it underwent a boundary adjustment with the mission of Kichow; on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a diocese, a suffragan of Hankow. From the beginning it has been entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor, which, for missionary work, sends its religious from the regular province of Cincinnati.
Area approximately 10,000 sq. km., with approximately 2,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 11,293 are Catholic; priests 25 (11 Chinese); sisters 58 (34 Chinese); 1 hospital, 3 dispensaries, 1 orphanage, 16 schools (30 June 1947).
As in the mother mission of Hankow, so too in the territory of W. the first traces of evangelical preaching date back to the 17th century, through the work of the Jesuits. But this was sporadic and suppressed by persecutions. In 1835 the Blessed Perboyre found a total of 200 faithful in the three cities of Hankow, Hanyang and W. Just outside the walls of W. the Blessed Clet (18 February 1829) and the Blessed Perboyre (11 September 1840) were martyred. Only after the treaty era (1844–60) and especially after 1900 did the movement toward the Catholic Church intensify. At the time of its erection as an apostolic prefecture, W. counted 2,748 faithful.