WUHU, DIOCESI di. — In the eastern part of Anhwei Province, in central China.
It was erected on 8 August 1921 under the name of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anhwei, by separation of this civil province from the Vicariate of Nanchino; on 3 December 1924 it took its name from W.; on 21 February 1929 it ceded 16 civil subprefectures in the southwestern part for the erection of Anking, and 23 subprefectures in the northern Pengpu (v.); on 22 February 1937, another 6 in the southeastern part, to TUNKERS (v.); on 11 April 1946 it was raised to a suffragan diocese of Anking. From the beginning it has been entrusted to the Society of Jesus, which sends there Spanish religious from the regular province of Castile.
Area approximately 32 sq. km., with about 5,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 40,184 are Catholics; 76 priests (6 Chinese); 58 sisters (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 Anhwei Province there had existed, since the 18th century, two Christian communities, one of which, in the mid-19th century, was assisted by the Jesuits of Nanchino, the other by the Lazarists of Kiangsi: together they comprised 400 faithful. Despite the Taiping civil war first (1852–64), and then the persecutions instigated by Chinese literati, by some intolerant mandarins, and by the sect known as the «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 in almost every place. In 1891 these numbered 138, with 7,280 baptized persons, 2,431 catechumens, and 28 priests; by 1921 they had risen to 476, with 76,820 faithful, 51,591 catechumens, and 60 missionaries.