Ying-Kow [Yingkou], Diocese of

YING-KOW [YINGKOU], Diocese of. - Located 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 detachment from the archdiocese of Moukden, of which it is a suffragan. The population (2,406,526 inhabitants) is entirely Chinese and the language spoken is more or less that of Peking (Northern Mandarin). It is very easy to travel through, thanks to the development of the railway lines, and is, after Moukden, the most favored in this respect of all the missions of Manchuria. Administratively the aforementioned eight civil prefectures form part of 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 communist regime was established in China, there were about 10,000 Catholics in this mission. The fathers of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, to which the diocese is entrusted, were forced to repatriate, leaving 7 native priests in place. 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, on the whole, were fewer in number than the Catholic faithful. In the localities of lesser importance, on the contrary, their presence was rare, indeed almost nonexistent. The Mohammedans in the region of Pechen alone numbered about 14,000. In general they lived apart, without engaging in proselytism. There were four primary schools, but, closed during the years of Manchukuo, they were never reopened. The Protestant ones suffered the same fate. There were 11 churches capable of holding from 400 to 1000 faithful and 38 oratories. In the city of Y.-k. there was an orphanage; a hospice for the aged; a workshop; a dispensary which in 1947 had treated 11,908 sick persons.

Edoardo Pecoraro