The Catholic Church in Taiwan is part of the worldwide

Catholic Church 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 ...

, under the spiritual leadership of the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Between 1.5% and 2% of the population of Taiwan are Catholic. The Church operates one university, the Fu Jen Catholic University.

History

In 1514, Taiwan was included in the Diocese of Funchal as a missionary jurisdiction; there was some organized Catholic activity on the island. In 1576, the first Chinese diocese, the

Diocese of Macau The Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau ( pt, 1=Diocese de Macau; ) is an exempt (i.e. an immediate subject of the Holy See and not part of any ecclesiastical province) Latin Rite diocese of the Catholic Church, in contrast with the Roman Catholic Di ...

, was established in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

, a Portuguese colony, and covered most of China including Taiwan. The diocese of Macau was sub-divided several times over the next few centuries. In 1626, Northern Taiwan became a

Spanish colony The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

. In 1631, Jacinto Esquivel, a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Dominican

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

, built a church in Northern Taiwan. In chronological order, Taiwan belonged to the

Archdiocese of Manila In 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 provinces were administratively associate ...

(1627), the Apostolic Vicariate (now Archdiocese) of

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

(1660), the Apostolic Vicariate of Fujian (now the

Archdiocese of Fuzhou The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Fuzhou ( la, Fuceuven(sis), ) is an archdiocese located in the city of Fuzhou in China. History * 1680: Established as Apostolic Vicariate of Fujian from the Apostolic Vicariate of Cochin * October 3, 1883: ...

) (1696) and the Apostolic Vicariate (now Diocese) of

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an ...

(1883). In 1913, the

Apostolic Prefecture An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...

of the Island of Taiwan (then called Formosa in foreign languages) was established out of the Diocese of Xiamen. It was renamed Apostolic Prefecture of Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong) in 1949, when the Apostolic Prefecture of Taipei (now the Archdiocese of Taipei) was established out of its territory. Before the end of World War II the Catholic Church had a very minor presence in Taiwan, based mainly in the south of the island and centred on Spanish Dominican priests who went there from the Philippines in the 1860s. The end of World War II and the following years saw a mass migration of religious communities from mainland China as Communist persecution began to take effect following the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...

in 1949. As a result, the Catholic Church has many

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

-speaking emigrants from the mainland. In September 1951 the Papal Internuncio to China was expelled to Hong Kong. Since 1952, the Papal internuncio has been stationed in Taiwan ( Republic of China). Also, the ROC ambassador to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

has provided the only permanent diplomatic link between China and the Holy See. Attempts to move the

Papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

have failed, as the Holy See has not accepted demands by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

that it sever its diplomatic links with Taiwan. The current archbishop of Taipei is the Most Reverend Thomas Chung An-Zu (鐘安住), who was appointed on 23 May 2020 to succeed John Hung Shan-chuan (洪山川), S.V.D., who retiredArchived a
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and th
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in the same year. On 19 February 2021,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

formally granted a decree of

canonical coronation A canonical coronation ( la, Coronatio Canonica) is a pious institutional act of the pope, duly expressed in a bull, in which the pope bestows the right to impose an ornamental crown, a diadem or an aureole to an image of Christ, Mary or J ...

for a Marian image of

Our Lady of China Our Lady of China, the Great Mother ( zh, t=中華大聖母, s=中华大圣母, first=t, p=Zhōnghuá Da Shèngmǔ), also known as Our Lady of Donglü ( zh, t=東閭聖母, s=东闾圣母, first=t, p=Dōnglǘ Shèngmǔ, links=no), is a Catholic t ...

, currently venerated at the National Shrine of Our Lady of China in

Chiayi County Chiayi County ( Mandarin pinyin: ''jiā yì xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Ka-gī-koān'') is a county in southwestern Taiwan surrounding but not including Chiayi City. It is the sixth largest county in Taiwan. Name The former Chinese placename wa ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Dioceses

* Archdiocese of Taipei (台北) founded 1949, archdiocese since 1952 * Diocese of Kaohsiung (高雄), founded 1913, renamed and upgraded 1949 and 1961 * Diocese of Taichung (台中), founded 1951, upgraded 1962 * Diocese of Chiayi (嘉義), founded 1952, upgraded 1962 * Diocese of Hwalien (花蓮), founded 1952, upgraded 1963 * Diocese of Hsinchu (新竹), founded 1961 * Diocese of Tainan (台南), founded 1961 * Kinma Apostolic Administration (金馬), founded 1968

References

External links

Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference

by GCatholic.org
Shamanism and Catholic Indigenous Communities in Taiwan
{{Churches in Taiwan

History

Dioceses

See also

References

External links