Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamhung

Last updated
Diocese of Hamhung

Dioecesis Hameungensis

함흥 교구
Location
CountryFlag of North Korea.svg  North Korea
Ecclesiastical province Seoul
Metropolitan Seoul
Statistics
Area49,375 km2 (19,064 sq mi)
Population
- Catholics

unknown
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Rite Roman Rite
EstablishedAugust 5, 1920
CathedralDestroyed in Korean War
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Bishop Sede vacante
Metropolitan Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo-jung
Apostolic Administrator Simon Kim Ju-young
Map
Diocese of Hamhung.svg

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamhung is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in North Korea.

Contents

Originally erected as the Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan in 1920, the name has been changed twice, once to Kankoensis o Hameungensis in 1940, and finally, as the Apostolic Vicariate of Hamhung in 1950. Like the Diocese of Pyongyang, the Vicariate was elevated to a full diocese in 1962. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Seoul.

Persecutions

In 1949, 166 priests and religious were martyred in the Communist revolution of Kim Il Sung. This left the diocese bereft of priests. Bishop Boniface Sauer, the abbot of Tokwon Abbey, had died in 1950, and no bishop had been re-appointed to the diocese. Finally, in 1962, Timotheus (Franz Xaver) Bitterli, was appointed in absentia as the bishop of the diocese, and was the apostolic administrator for 20 years until his resignation in 1981. Since then, the diocese has remained vacant, and it will likely remain so as long as the persecution of Christians in North Korea continues.

Ordinaries

Vicars Apostolic of Hamheung

Bishops of Hamhung

See also

Related Research Articles

An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese, or is a diocese, eparchy or similar permanent ordinariate that either has no bishop or, in very rare cases, has an incapacitated bishop.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in North Carolina, United States

The Diocese of Charlotte is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in western North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul</span> Roman Catholic archdiocese in Korea

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seoul is a Metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church comprising the metropolitan area of Seoul, South Korea, whose province comprises parts of South Korea and all North Korea, yet depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Chuncheon</span> Roman Catholic archdiocese in Korea

The Diocese of Chunchon is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in South Korea. A suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Seoul, it has ecclesiastic authority over the administrative province of Gangwon-do.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Jeonju</span> Roman Catholic diocese in South Korea

The Diocese of Jeonju is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in South Korea. It is in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Gwangju, yet depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Pyongyang</span> Roman Catholic diocese in North Korea

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pyongyang is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in North Korea. Its only official bishop, Francis Hong Yong-ho, was imprisoned by the government of the North Korea led by Kim Il-sung in 1949 and later disappeared. The Archbishop of Seoul acts as the Apostolic Administrator for Pyongyang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Daejeon</span> Roman Catholic diocese in South Korea

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Daejeon is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic church in South Korea. It is the diocese for Daejeon, South Korea. Augustinus Kim Jong-soo has been appointed its bishop; Stephanus Han Jung-hyun is auxiliary bishop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territorial abbey</span> Particular church of the Catholic Church whose abbot performs the same function as a diocesan bishop

A territorial abbey is a particular church of the Catholic Church comprising defined territory which is not part of a diocese but surrounds an abbey or monastery whose abbot or superior functions as ordinary for all Catholics and parishes in the territory. Such an abbot is called a territorial abbot or abbot nullius diœceseos. A territorial abbot thus differs from an ordinary abbot, who exercises authority only within the monastery's walls or to monks or canons who have taken their vows there. A territorial abbot is equivalent to a diocesan bishop in Catholic canon law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church in South Korea</span> Overview of the role of the Catholic Church in South Korea

The Catholic Church in South Korea is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. At the end of 2017, it had 5,813,770 members with 5,360 priests and 1,734 parishes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church in North Korea</span>

The Catholic Church in North Korea retains a community of several hundred adherents who practice under the supervision of the state-established Korean Catholic Association (KCA) rather than the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The dioceses of the Church have remained vacant since Christian persecutions in the late 1940s. The most prominent congregation is that of Pyongyang, which meets at Changchung Cathedral. According to a KCA official, two other congregations exist. The state ideology of Juche has largely displaced Catholic faith, and full services are provided only to people with a Catholic family background. Most, if not all, religious formation of Catholics in the country occurs across the Tumen River in China, where North Koreans occasionally cross illegally to meet with family from the South. Some North Koreans are baptized on the Chinese side and return to Korea, practicing their faith in secrecy.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mariannhill is a diocese located in the city of Mariannhill in the Ecclesiastical province of Durban in South Africa.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Yanji/Yenki is a diocese located in the city of Yanji (Jilin) in the Ecclesiastical province of Shenyang 瀋陽 in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Seidenbusch</span>

Rupert Seidenbusch was a German prelate of the Catholic Church. A Benedictine monk, he served as the first abbot of Saint John's Abbey (1866-1875) and the first Vicar Apostolic of Northern Minnesota (1875-1888).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Territorial Abbey of Tokwon</span> Monastery in modern North Korea

Tokwon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien, located near the town of Wonsan in what is now North Korea. Founded as a monastic mission in Seoul, the community transferred to Tokwon in the 1920s to take charge of the newly created Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan. The persecution of Christians in North Korea since 1949 made any church activity in the abbacy impossible. However the Territorial Abbacy of Tokwon is formally still kept as one of the few remaining territorial abbeys within the Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss Bishops' Conference</span> Coordination body of the Catholic dioceses in Switzerland

The Swiss Bishops' Conference is the coordinating body of the Catholic dioceses in Switzerland. It was founded in 1863 as the world's first Bishops Conference and is a member of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waegwan Abbey</span> Benedictine monastery in South Korea

Saint Maurus and Saint Placidus Abbey, Waegwan, Chilgok, North Gyeongsang, South Korea is a Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien. Established in 1952 by Korean monks who had survived the dissolution of the Territorial Abbey of Tokwon and Holy Cross Abbey in Yanji, the monastery is currently home to 131 monks. Fr Blasio Park is the current abbot.

Holy Cross Abbey, Yenki (Yanji), Jilin, China, was a Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien. Established in 1922 as a mission station, the monastery later became the seat of the Vicariate Apostolic of Yenki. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces following World War II, the monastery was suppressed by the People's Republic of China. While many of the monks were repatriated to Europe, others moved to South Korea and founded the Abbey of Waegwan.

Ryahovo is a village in northern Bulgaria, and as Ancient Ap(p)iaria a former bishopric, remaining a Latin Catholic titular see.

Abbot Boniface Sauer, O.S.B. was a Benedictine monk and Roman Catholic bishop who served as apostolic administrator of Hamheung, Korea and Abbot of Tokugen o Tokwon.

References

    Coordinates: 39°54′58″N127°32′02″E / 39.9160°N 127.5340°E / 39.9160; 127.5340