WUCHOW, DIocese of. - In the eastern part of the Kwangsi province, in south-central China.
It was erected as a mission *sui iuris* on 30 June 1930 with 30 civil subprefectures from the apostolic vicariate of Nanning; on 10 December 1934 it became an apostolic prefecture; on 2 February 1938 it ceded 16 civil subprefectures for the erection of Kweilin (q.v.); on 20 July 1939 it was elevated to an apostolic vicariate, and on 11 April 1946 to a suffragan diocese of Nanning. From the beginning it has been entrusted to the Maryknoll Missioners.
Area: 34,150 sq. km., with approximately 3,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 12,122 are Catholics; 25 priests (1 indigenous), 14 religious sisters (9 indigenous); 1 hospital, 1 orphanage, 14 dispensaries, 6 schools (30 June 1947).
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no Christians in the territory of W. Around 1910, evangelical preaching began, with notable success, in the civil prefecture of Pingnan, where in recent years the minor seminary had been located, and with less success in the civil subprefecture of Watlam. In 1920, the Maryknoll missionaries arrived in the area.