WUCHOW, DIOCESE of. - In the eastern part of the province of Kwangsi, in south-central China.
It was erected as a mission sui iuris on 30 June 1930 from 30 civil subprefectures of the apostolic vicariate of Nanning; on 10 Dec. 1934 it became an apostolic prefecture; on 2 Feb. 1938 it ceded 16 civil Kweilin (v.); on 20 July 1939 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate, and on 11 Apr. 1946 to a diocese suffragan of Nanning. From the beginning it has been entrusted to the Society for the Foreign Missions of Maryknoll.
Area: 34,150 sq. km., with approx. 3,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 12,122 are Catholics; 25 priests (1 native), 14 sisters (9 native); 1 hospital, 1 orphanage, 14 medicine dispensaries, 6 schools (30 June 1947).
At the beginning of the 20th century there was not even one Christian in the territory of W. Around 1910 evangelical preaching was begun, with considerable success, in the civil prefecture of Pingnam, where in recent years the minor seminary was located, and, with less notable success, in the civil subprefecture of Watlam. In 1920 the Maryknoll missionaries arrived there.