AUSTRALASIA

AUSTRALASIA. — By some geographers this term designates Indonesia or Insulindia (Dutch East Indies); by others it refers to the whole of Australia, America, the Indies (the Philippines and Indonesia) and the islands of Oceania. Ecclesiastically, the term A. is applied to the Apostolic Delegation, established on 15 April 1914 for Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, and later extended (20 May 1919) to the missions of insular Oceania and Malaysia, except (1921) the Apostolic Vicariate of the Mariana, Caroline and Marshall Islands, which was attached to the Apostolic Delegation of Japan, that of the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands, then attached to the Delegation of the United States, which since 1941 has been no longer a vicariate but the diocese of Honolulu, suffragan of San Francisco, and that of Guam, which passed under the Delegation of the Philippines. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide dated 8 June 1947, the Apostolic Delegation of the Indonesian Archipelago was erected with its seat in Batavia for the Dutch East Indies, which were thus withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Delegation of A., which by another decree of the same date took the name of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. See the individual entries: AUSTRALIA, INDONESIA, OCEANIA.