BAUDOUINVILLE [MOBA], APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - It was erected, under the name of Upper Congo, in January 1887 with territory taken from the apostolic vicariate of Tanganyika. From this vicariate some White Fathers, at the request of Leopold II, had been sent by Lavigerie into the territory of the new independent State of the Belgian Congo, settling at Mpala. Its boundaries were subsequently changed together with the neighboring missions in order to make them coincide with the political frontiers of the English and German colonies. The beginnings of the mission owe a good part of their success to the valor and zeal of the former captain of the pontifical Zouaves, Joubert, who protected the nascent Christian communities against the assaults of the Arab slave traders. Given the insecurity of the country, the mission had to suffer greatly from the devastation brought about by sleeping sickness, then by the "Spanish" flu in 1918 (10,000 dead), and, given the proximity of German East Africa, from the repercussions of the war of 1914-18; in these last decades Protestantism and the intensive industrialization of the country have caused no little concern to the missionaries. Despite the great difficulties (the secret societies among the pagans, Islam and Protestantism), the response is consoling. From about a thousand Catholics in 1890, the number reached 58,580 (with as many as 37,215 catechumens) in 1945, out of a total population of about 450,000 souls, spread over an area of 95,000 sq km.

The vicariate of Upper Congo changed its name to the present one of B. in 1939. The mission is provided with primary, secondary and vocational schools, and a normal school, and with works of charity or of social uplift

(mutual aid societies, savings banks, a boatmen's guild). The latest statistics (1945) give 37 White Fathers, 11 brothers of the same Society, 44 White Sisters; the native priests are 19, the native Sisters of St. Joseph 14, and the catechists 709; male and female teachers 650.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Guida delle Missioni Cattoliche, Rome 1935, p. 263; P. Lesourd, Les Pères Blancs du cardinal Lavigerie, Paris 1935, pp. 141-45; A. Corman, Annuaire des missions catholiques au Congo Belge, 2nd ed., Brussels 1935, p. 17-30; P. Lesourd, Histoire des missions catholiques, Paris 1937, p. 332 ff. (with bibl.); Vicariat ap. de B., 1938-39, in Grands Lacs, Dec. 1939, pp. 21-25; MC, Rome 1946.

@incollection{ec2_baudoinville_vicariato_apostol, author = {Tragella, Giovanni Battista}, title = {Baudoinville, vicariato apostolico di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1061--1062}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/baudoinville-vicariato-apostolico-di} }

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Baudouinville [Moba], Apostolic Vicariate of

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