BACONINI, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF
On 1 June 1883, the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Tonkin was detached from the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Tonkin and entrusted to the Dominican Province of the Philippines. In 1924, it took the name of BACONINI. In 1913, it was divided with the creation of the Apostolic Prefecture, now Vicariate, of Lang Son and Cao Bang.
Area of the territory, located in the torrid zone near the Tropic of Cancer: 24,700 sq km; total population (approximate count, 1942): 1,200,000 inhabitants, mostly Annamites, about 60,000 of Tho or Thai stock, about 25,000 Man in the mountainous region. Catholics: 58,728, almost all Annamites, with 730 catechumens; about thirty Protestants, and approximately 1,140,000 pagans. The 46 primary and 428 secondary stations are entrusted to 67 Annamite secular priests and 12 Dominicans, assisted by 6 foreign sisters and 201 Indochinese; there are 131 catechists and 347 teachers. Mission works: a minor seminary with 22 students, and 59 philosophy and theology students studying outside the mission; "Domus Dei" for aspirants to the seminary and for catechists; 32 dispensaries, 20 orphanages, a hospice for the elderly, and a leper hospital, as well as 1 hospital. Evangelization proceeds slowly (annual average of 300 adult baptisms) both due to the scarcity of personnel and the entanglement of the people in material concerns. The Second World War has created new obstacles.