BENUE, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - Of recent institution (9 July 1934), with territory taken from the vicariate of Southern Nigeria, thenceforth called Onitsha-Owerri; it is the northwestern part of the mother mission, between the Niger and its tributary the Benue. Its institution was brought about

(as was that of Calabar, of Kaduna, of Jos, all created in 1934, and finally that of Ogoja, created in 1938) by the vast movement of conversions that arose in Nigeria in recent decades. The prefecture was entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, whose fathers had already been working in that region since 1930.

The total population, spread over an area of about 75,000 sq km, is approximately 2,000,000 inhabitants, of whom about 250,000 are Muslims, 16,000 Protestants and the others pagans. Catholics, according to the statistics of 1948, number 5,896 with 22,139 catechumens. The prefecture has 7 principal stations directed by 19 missionaries. The missionaries' chief concern is to organize the schools throughout the mission in the best possible way.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Guida delle Missioni cattoliche, Rome [1934], p. 246; Echo aus den Missionen, 1939, p. 104; MC, p. 45; Archivio di Prop. Fide, Prospectus status Missionis, posiz. prot. n. 3578/48.

Giovanni B. Tragella

@incollection{ec2_benue_prefettura_apostolica_di, author = {Tragella, Giovanni Battista}, title = {Benue, prefettura apostolica di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1361--1362}, 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/benue-prefettura-apostolica-di} }

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Benue, Apostolic Prefecture of

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