Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nanjing

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Nanjing (Latin: Archidioecesis Nanchinensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in China. It was erected as the Apostolic Vicariate of Nanjing in 1659 by Pope Alexander VII, and promoted to a diocese by Pope Alexander VIII on April 10, 1690. However, the diocese was demoted to the Apostolic Vicariate of Kiangnan on January 21, 1856 by Pope Pius IX, and its name was later changed to the Apostolic Vicariate of Kiangsu on August 8, 1921 and to the Vicariate Apostolic of Nanjing on May 1, 1922. Pope Pius XII elevated it on April 11, 1946 to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese, with the suffragan sees of Haimen, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Xuzhou.

Archdiocese of Nanjing

Archidioecesis Nanchinensis

天主教南京总教区
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception,Nanjing
Location
CountryChina
Ecclesiastical provinceNanjing
Coordinates32.044751°N 118.778343°E / 32.044751; 118.778343
Statistics
Population
- Total
- Catholics (including non-members)		(as of 1949)
6,000,000 [1]
32,536 [1] (0.5%)
Information
RiteLatin Rite
CathedralCathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Nanjing
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
Metropolitan ArchbishopFrancis Lu Xin-ping
Mgr Ignace Cotolendi (1630-1662) was the first appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nanjing.

The archdiocese's motherchurch and thus seat of its archbishop is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception also known as the Shigu Road church. There were a number of years without a bishop after the death of Paul Cardinal Yü Pin on August 16, 1978, because of the irregular relations between the Communist government and the Holy See. On January 6, 2000, Francis Xavier Lu Xinping was ordained the new bishop of Nanjing along with four others in an illicit ceremony in Beijing's South Cathedral. Since then he has been reconciled to the Holy See.

List of Ordinaries of Nanjing

See also

Further reading
  • David Strong, A Call to Mission -- A History of the Jesuits in China 1842-1954. Volume 1: The French Romance, ATF Press, 2018.

References
  1. www.catholic-hierarchy.org | Statistics - Archdiocese of Nanjing
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