Catholic Church in Taiwan

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Dioceses of Taiwan
St. John Catholic Church in Banqiao District, New Taipei

The Catholic Church in Taiwan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. 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, was established in Macau, 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. In 1631, , a Spanish Dominican friar, build a church in Northern Taiwan. In chronological order, Taiwan belonged to the Archdiocese of Manila (1628), the Apostolic Vicariate (now Archdiocese) of Nanjing (1660), the Apostolic Vicariate of Fujian (now the Archdiocese of Fuzhou) (1696) and the Apostolic Vicariate (now Diocese) of Xiamen (1883).

In 1913, the Apostolic Prefecture 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 in 1949. As a result, the Catholic Church has many Mandarin-speaking mainland immigrants.

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 has provided the only permanent diplomatic link between China and the Holy See. Attempts to move the Papal nuncio to Beijing have failed, as the Holy See has not accepted demands by the People's Republic of China that it sever its diplomatic links with Taiwan.

The current archbishop of Taipei is the Most Reverend Thomas Chung An-Zu (鐘安住),[1][circular reference] who was appointed on 23rd May, 2020[2][3] to succeed John Hung Shan-chuan (洪山川), S.V.D., who retired[4] in the same year.

Dioceses[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ zh:鍾安住
  2. ^ "Resignations and Appointments".
  3. ^ "Thomas Chung An-Zu is the new archbishop of Taipei".
  4. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "2020/07/18台北總教區洪山川總主教榮休暨鍾安住總主教就職典禮現場直播". YouTube.

External links[]

Indigenous Communities in Taiwan]

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