Upper Orinoco, Apostolic Prefecture of the

UPPER ORINOCO, Apostolic Prefecture of the. - It is located in northeastern Venezuela, on the borders of British Guiana and Brazil. It was erected by the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory on 5 February 1932, dismembering its territory from the diocese of Guyana (Venezuela) and subjecting it to Propaganda Fide. It comprises the municipality and parish of La Urbana (St-Bolivar) and four departments of the "Territorio de Amazonas": Atures (capital of the same name), Atabapo (S. Fernando), Rio Negro (S. Carlos), Casiquiare (Maroa). The Amazonian tract, which faces Colombia, with the banks of the Orinoco, Atabapo, Guainia, and Rio Negro rivers and the zone of the Orinoco up to the confluence of the Casiquiare with the latter, has already been explored; the rest of the region remains unexplored up to the Parima, Maigualida, and Guamapi Mountains, where there are 14 tribes similar in customs but very different in language. There is only one road from Atures to the port of Sanariapo (67 km): otherwise one travels by water. The area of the territory is 300,000 sq km; the population (1940 estimate) is 39,450 pagans and 4,754 Catholics. La Urbana and the three missionary stations of Amazonia: S. Carlos (Rio Negro), Maroa (Rio Guainia), and S. Fernando (Rio Orinoco), are entrusted to four priests of the Pious Society of St. John Bosco (in the territory since 11 September 1933) with four lay coadjutors. A school was opened at Atures (130 pupils) and an orphanage (60 boys). Despite considerable material and moral difficulties, given also the neglect to which the parish of La Urbana was long subjected through the insufficiency of the diocesan clergy of Guyana, the pace of religious rebirth, as of the evangelization of the pagans, is promising, especially if the missionary personnel can be strengthened in the future.

Giuseppe Monticone