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Diocese of Hamhƒng

Hameungen(sis)

Suffragan diocese · Latin Church · Hamhƒng, North Korea

The Diocese of Hamhung in North Korea, suffragan of the ecclesiastical province of Seoul, originated as the Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan (1920), entrusted to the Benedictines of Tokwon Abbey, and was elevated to a full diocese in 1962. The see has been effectively impeded since the communist persecution of 1949, in which scores of its priests and religious were martyred, and remains sede vacante. Abbot Simon Kim Ju-young, O.S.B., of Waegwan Abbey has served as apostolic administrator since 2020; the Catholic population is unknown.

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
10 March 1962
Latin
Hameungen(sis)
Annuario code
001001572

The see in figures

Extent
49,375 km²

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

The register holds no ordinary for this see. Where a chair is vacant the vacancy is the fact, and it is recorded rather than filled in. See the bishop.

The province of Seoul

A suffragan of Seoul.

The sees of this province:

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

North Korea's Diocese of Hamhung belongs to the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. It began in 1920 as the Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan and changed its name twice thereafter: to Kankoensis o Hameungensis in 1940, and then to the Apostolic Vicariate of Hamhung in 1950. In 1962, like the Diocese of Pyongyang, the vicariate was raised to a full diocese. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Seoul.

How to reach it

Diocesan offices
Catholic Mission, Hamhƒng, Korea

This see keeps no website of its own, so the address of its diocesan offices is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.

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Sources

Wikipedia

Compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. Corrections: hello@catholicintelligence.com.