The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wanxian (formerly spelled Wanhsien; ; 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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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, prov ...

located in

Wanzhou District Wanzhou District ( zh, s=万州区 , t=萬州區 , p=Wànzhōu Qū) 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 ...

(formerly Wanxian),

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

in the ecclesiastical province of Chongqing, in the easternmost part of western China. It was established on August 2, 1929 as the Apostolic Vicariate of Wanhsien 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 (People's Republic of China), county in Chongqing municipality of China, municipality, China, and is the northernmost county-level division of Chongqing, bordering the provinces of Shaanxi and Sichuan to the north an ...

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 ( zh, s=无锡, p=Wúxī, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu, China. As of the 2024 census, it had a population of 7,495,000. The city lies in the southern Yangtze delta and borders Lake Tai. Notable landmarks include Lihu Park, the Mt. Lings ...

, 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 Joseph Xu Zhixuan ( zh, c=徐之玄; 7 July 1916 - 8 December 2008) was a Catholic Church in Sichuan, Sichuanese Roman Catholic Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chongqing, Archdiocese of Chongqing, China ...

(Appointed Coadjutor Bishop July 31, 1989; succeeded as ordinary on Jan 10, 2001; died Dec 8, 2008) * 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