The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wanxian (formerly spelled Wanhsien; la, Dioecesis Uanscienensis; zh, t=天主教萬縣教區), also known as Diocese of Wanzhou, is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

located in

Wanzhou District Wanzhou District () is Chongqing's second most populated urban core area on the upper reaches of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in China. It is currently governed as a district of Chongqing Municipality, bordering Sichuan to the northwest ...

(formerly Wanxian),

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

in the ecclesiastical province of Chongqing, in the easternmost part of western China. It was established on August 2, 1929 as an apostolic vicariate for the Mission of Sichuan (Szechwan).

Territory

The Diocese of Wanxian covers

() and eight counties in the mountainous area of northern Chongqing, namely,

Chengkou Chengkou County () is a county in Chongqing municipality, China, and is the northernmost county-level division of Chongqing, bordering the provinces of Shaanxi and Sichuan to the north and west, respectively. To the northeast, the county borders ...

Fengjie Fengjie County () is a county of Chongqing Municipality, China. It is on the Yangtze River; located within a couple hundreds kilometers upstream from the Three Gorges Dam, it is within the dam's affected area. The county's most famous geograp ...

, Kaixian,

Liangping Liangping District (), formerly Liangping County () and Liangshan County (), is a district in the north of Chongqing Municipality, People's Republic of China. Sports The Liangping District National Fitness Centre Stadium, which has a capacity of ...

, Wushan,

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

, Yunyang and Zhongxian, totaling approximately 20,000 square kilometers. It is bordered by the Diocese of Shunqing to the west, Diocese of Shinan to the east, Apostolic Prefecture of Xing'anfu to the north, and Archdiocese of Chongqing to the south and southwest.

History

* August 2, 1929: Established as Apostolic Vicariate of Wanhsien () from the Apostolic Vicariate of Chungking (Chongqing; ) * April 11, 1946: Promoted as Diocese of Wanhsien

Special churches

* Sacred Heart Church at Longbao (), a town located in the suburbs of Wanxian.

Bishops

; Vicar Apostolic of Wanhsien * (Wang Tse-pu) (December 16, 1929 – April 11, 1946) ; Bishop of Wanhsien * Francis Xavier Wang Zepu (Wang Tse-pu) (April 11, 1946 – July 3, 1947) ; Bishops of Wanxian * Matthias Duan Yinming (Tuan In-Min) (June 9, 1949 – January 10, 2001) * Joseph Xu Zhixuan (July 31, 1989 Appointed Coadjutor Bishop;succeeded as ordinary on Jan 10, 2001; Dec 8, 2008 Died) * Paul He Zeqing (December 13, 2008 – Present)

References

* * Christian organizations established in 1929 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 20th century {{PRChina-RC-diocese-stub

Territory

History

Special churches

Bishops

See also

References