ARCIPELAGO DEI NAVIGATORI, VICARIATO APOSTOLICO dell'. - It was erected on 29 Aug. 1850, being detached from the vicariate of Central Oceania (v. Wallis e Futuna); it is entrusted to the Society of Mary (Marists), and comprises the Samoa and Tokelau groups and the island of Sweins. The territory has an area of 3,359 sq. km.; the population is approximately 80,000 inhabitants, of whom 60,000 are Protestants, 16,476 Catholics, 141 catechumens, and 200 pagans.
The 15 ecclesiastical districts are administered by 22 priests (5 Samoans), 9 members of the congregation of the Little Brothers of Mary, and 54 missionary sisters of the Society of Mary. There is a minor seminary (48 pupils). The schools are well organized, both elementary (114 with 2,300 pupils) and secondary (16 with 750 pupils), as is the school for catechists (56 pupils). The local printing press publishes the monthly periodical O le Anauva in Samoan (750 copies). Religious indifferentism, produced among the uneducated masses by the multiplicity of Protestant denominations, and laxity of morals hinder more rapid progress of the mission, all the more so since it began in territory already subject to non-Catholics.