Ecclesiastical province Nanjing Pope Francis Country China | Rite Latin Rite Metropolitan Archbishop Francis Lu Xin-ping | |
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Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 1949)
6,000,000
32,536 (0.5%) Cathedral Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception | ||
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Nanking (Latin: Archidioecesis Nanchinensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in China. It was erected as the Apostolic Vicariate of Nanking 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 Nanking 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.
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.