BAUDOINVILLE, VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 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, several 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, establishing themselves at Mpala. Its boundaries were subsequently altered in conjunction 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 owed much of their success to the ability and zeal of the former captain of the papal Zouaves, Joubert, who protected the nascent Christian communities against attacks by the Arab slave traders. Given the insecurity of the country, the mission suffered greatly from the devastation caused by sleeping sickness, and later by the “Spanish flu” in 1918 (10,000 deaths); and, because of the proximity of German East Africa, from the repercussions of the war of 1914–18. In recent decades, Protestantism and the intensive industrialization of the country have caused the missionaries considerable concern. Despite the great difficulties (secret societies among the pagans, Islam, and Protestantism), the response is consoling. From approximately one thousand Catholics in 1890, the number reached 58,580 (including as many as 37,215 catechumens) in 1945, out of a total population of approximately 450,000 inhabitants, distributed over an area of 95,000 sq km.
The Vicariate of Upper Congo changed its name to its present one, B., in 1939. The mission has primary, secondary, and vocational schools, as well as a normal school, and charitable or socially uplifting institutions
(mutual-aid societies, savings banks, and a boatmen’s corporation). The latest statistics (1945) record 37 White Fathers, 11 brothers of the same Society, and 44 White Sisters; there are 19 indigenous priests, 14 indigenous Sisters of St. Joseph, and 709 catechists; 650 male and female teachers.