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:
- Archdiocese of SeoulSeoul
- Diocese of ChuncheonChuncheon
- Diocese of DaejeonDaejeon
- Diocese of IncheonIncheon
- Diocese of P'yŏng-yangP'yŏng-yang
- Diocese of SuwonSuwon
- Diocese of UijeongbuUijeongbu
- Diocese of WonjuWonju
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
- Chancery
- Catholic Mission, Hamhƒng, Korea
This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery 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.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].