Catholic Church in Taiwan


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 chronological order, Taiwan belonged to the Apostolic Vicariate , the Apostolic Vicariate of Fujian and the Apostolic Vicariate of Xiamen.
In 1913, the Apostolic Prefecture of the Island of Taiwan was established out of the Diocese of Xiamen. It was renamed Apostolic Prefecture of Kaohsiung in 1949, when the Apostolic Prefecture 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. 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 John Hung Shan-chuan, S.V.D., who was appointed in November 2007.

Dioceses