YING-KOW, DIOCESE OF
Situated in the southern part of Manchuria (northern China), it comprises eight civil prefectures, namely Haishan, Tai-an, Pechen, Panshan, Haicheng, Y.-k., Kaiping, and Fuhsien, with a total area of 22,218 sq. km.
It was erected on 14 July 1949, by separation from the archdiocese of Moukden, of which it is a suffragan. The population (2,406,526 inhabitants) is entirely Chinese, and the spoken language is approximately that of Peking (northern Mandarin). It offers great ease of movement, thanks to the development of railway lines, and is, after Moukden, the most favored in this respect of all the missions in Manchuria. Administratively, the aforementioned eight civil prefectures belong to the same province of Moukden, which is the most important, the most populous, if not the most extensive, of the nine provinces of Manchuria. Before the establishment of the communist regime in China, there were about 10,000 Catholics in this mission. The priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, to whom the diocese was entrusted, were forced to repatriate, leaving behind seven indigenous priests. The cities of Y.-k., Kaiping, and Haishan had long had Protestant (Presbyterian) missions, which, before the present state of affairs, showed a certain activity. Their adherents, however, were fewer in number than the Catholic faithful. In smaller localities, on the contrary, their presence was rare, indeed almost non-existent. The Muslims in the Pechen region alone numbered about 14,000. Generally, they lived apart, without engaging in proselytism. There were four primary schools, but they were closed during the years of the Manchoukouo and were never reopened. The Protestant schools suffered the same fate. There were 11 churches capable of holding from 400 to 1,000 faithful, and 38 oratories. In the city of Y.-k., there was an orphanage; a hospice for the elderly; a workshop; and a dispensary which, in 1947, had treated 11,908 patients.
Y.M.C.A.: V. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.