The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as Ping'anqiao Catholic Church, is the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cathedral of the Diocese of Chengdu, situated on Xihuamen Street, Qingyang District, in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

's capital city of

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

. It has been subjected to the control of the state-sanctioned

Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) is the national organization for Catholicism in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1957 after a group of Chinese Catholics met in Beijing with officials from the Chinese Commun ...

since 1957.

Description

The construction of the cathedral started in 1897, under the supervision of Jacques-Victor-Marius Rouchouse, a French missionary of the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (, , MEP) is a Catholic Missionary order, missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular clergy, secular priests and Laity, lay persons dedicated to missionary wo ...

and the first bishop of the Diocese of Chengdu, who was appointed to supervise the work by Bishop Marie-Julien Dunand. It was not completed until 1904. The English political economist Audrey Donnithorne was baptized at this cathedral after converting from

Anglicanism Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

to Roman Catholicism in 1943. The buildings, including the cathedral, the Bishop's Office, and the Episcopal Residence, cover an area of 16,566.3 square meters and have a usable area of 8,508.5 square meters. Built in a

cruciform A cruciform is a physical manifestation resembling a common cross or Christian cross. These include architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described as having a cruciform ...

design with a

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

of neo-Byzantine style, the cathedral and its surrounding buildings constitute the Chinese character "" meaning "fear", representing "The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord" (

Proverbs A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

9:10). The right part of the character means "rule", which represents the function of this building as a cathedral, as Jesus said in the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" ( Matthew 18:18).

Mass times

English Mass is celebrated on Saturdays at 4:00pm. Service in the local language is held on Sundays, starting at the same hour.

Gallery

File:PAQ-altar.png, High altar File:PAQ-altar2.png, Low altar File:PAQ-cathedra.png, The bishop's seat File:Statue of Jesus Christ in Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Chengdu.jpg, Entrance to the chapel of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

File:PAQ-sacred heart.png, Side view of the Sacred Heart Chapel File:Statue of Holy Mary in Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Chengdu.jpg,

Lourdes grotto A Lourdes grotto is a replica of the grotto where the Lourdes apparitions occurred in 1858, in the town of Lourdes in France, now part of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Some Lourdes grottos are almost identical reproductions of the scene o ...

File:Diocesan curia of Roman Catholic Diocese of Chengdu.jpg, Diocesan curia File:PAQ-plaque.png, The plan of the cathedral site, in the form of the Chinese character "悚"

References

{{Christianity in Sichuan Churches in Chengdu Byzantine Revival church buildings Renaissance Revival church buildings

Roman Catholic churches completed in 1904 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in China 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in China

Description

Mass times

Gallery

See also

References