BATAVIA, VICARIATO APOSTOLICO. — This mission of the Dutch East Indies, now administered by the Dutch Jesuits, was established as a separate ecclesiastical district in 1841 (for the earlier period V. INDIE ORIENTALI OLANDESI). From then until 1859, the missionary work of the few secular priests assigned to this extremely extensive mission was necessarily limited to assisting the European Catholics of Java.
In 1859, summoned by the apostolic vicar, Msgr. Vrancken, the first two Dutch Jesuits landed there. These men, together with the confrères who soon followed, subsequently succeeded in extending their activity beyond Java to the other parts of the Archipelago (Flores, Timor, Celebes, Sumatra, Borneo, etc.), even before they were able to establish a center on Java itself, where the government protected the dominant Islam far too blatantly. The task, however, was exceedingly difficult, not only because of the extent of the vicariate, but also because of the multiplicity of races, with their corresponding diversity of languages and customs. Consequently, beginning in 1902, the mission began to split up and continued to divide its territory with other missionary institutes, those of the Sacred Heart of Issoudun, the Capuchins, the Fathers of the Divine Word, etc. In this way the Jesuits, restricted to the western extremity of Java, were able to foster a fruitful missionary activity, especially through primary and secondary schools, despite the difficulties of the terrain, the national sensibility of the Javanese, reluctant to embrace a “Western” religion, the tenacious Mohammedanism—particularly hostile on the part of the baḡī, fanatics because they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca—the encroaching communism, etc.
According to the statistics of 1948, the vicariate has an area of knq. 6,777 and a population of 2,648,42 inhabitants, most of whom are Muslim. The decrease in the population was caused by a strong current of emigration. The indigenous Catholics number 888 and the foreigners 24,096. There are 65 missionaries, 43 brothers, and 247 sisters. Five periodicals are published there. During the last Indonesian uprising for independence (1945–46), following the collapse of Japan, several Jesuit Fathers lost their lives.