BENI (EL-BENI), APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. – The restorer in Bolivia of the ancient Franciscan and Jesuit missions was the Franciscan Andrea Herrero who, assisted by Italian and Spanish confrères, founded in 1835 the apostolic colleges of Sucre and La Paz, to which some parishes and all the residences along the B. River remained entrusted.
In 1919 Propaganda suppressed the said colleges, whose task passed to the Seraphic Province of Andalusia. Meanwhile, the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs erected the Apostolic Vicariate of B., entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor, detaching from the Archdiocese of La Paz or Charcas a vast region extending from the foothills of the Andes to Brazil, which in 1942 was itself divided for the subsequent creation of the vicariates of Pando and Reyes.
Area of the territory, comprising the provinces of Cercado and Itenez and half of the province of Yacuma: approximately 180,000 sq. km.; total population: 44,805 inhabitants, mostly Indians and mestizos; the remainder Bolivians and foreigners. In addition to more than 42,000 Catholics, there are approximately 140 Protestants, very few Jews, and 2,500 semi-civilized pagans. The eight quasi-parishes and a few other residences are entrusted to nine Franciscan priests with one brother, all of them Spanish. Five elementary schools, with 325 pupils, are in operation.
Evangelization is less advanced in Yacuma and Itenez because of the presence of Protestants. Other obstacles in general arise from the lack of communications, especially during the annual floods (only a few centers being connected with Trinidad by air), from unfavorable climatic and hygienic conditions, as well as from the almost general degradation of the indigenous people, resulting from various causes, including the semi-slave exploitation carried out especially by adventurers coming from neighboring states. The territorial division mentioned above, however, which has made possible the gradual concentration of the excessively small missionary personnel, gives grounds for hope for a more fruitful future.