Wuhu, Diocese of

WUHU, Diocese of. - In the eastern part of the province of Anhwei, in central China.

It was erected on 8 Aug. 1921 under the name of vicariate ap. of Anhwei, by detaching this civil province from the vicariate of Nanking; on 3 Dec. 1924 it took its name from W.; on 21 Febr. 1929 it ceded 16 civil sub-prefectures, in the south-western part, for the erection of Anking, and 23 sub-prefectures in the northern part for the erection of Pengpu (v.); on 22 Febr. 1937 another 6, in the south-eastern part, to give life to the apostolic prefecture of Tunki (v.); on 11 Apr. 1946 it was elevated to a diocese suffragan of Anking. It has been entrusted, from the beginning, to the Society of Jesus, which sends there the Spanish religious of the regular province of Castile.

Area approx. 32 sq km., with approx. 5,000,000 inhabitants, of whom Catholics 40,184; priests 76 (6 Chinese); nuns 58 (7 Chinese); 5 dispensaries, 1 orphanage, 55 schools (30 June 1947). In 1947 the major Seminary of W. was canonically erected as a regional seminary for the missions of Anhwei and was entrusted to the Society of Jesus.

In the southern part of the province of Anhwei there existed, from the 18th century onward, two Christian communities, of which, in the middle of the 19th century, one was assisted by the Jesuits of Nanking, the other by the Lazarists of Kiangsi: together they comprised 400 faithful. Despite the civil war of the Taiping first (1852-64) and then the persecutions stirred up by Chinese men of letters, by some intolerant mandarin and by the sect called «China Inland Mission», the said province, in the second half of the 19th century, had been almost entirely traversed by missionaries, who founded Christian communities almost everywhere. In 1891 these were 138 with 7,280 baptized, 2,431 catechumens and 28 priests, risen to 476 in 1921 with 76,820 faithful, 51,591 catechumens and 60 missionaries.

Adamo Pucci