CAPE TOWN, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. - It is the former vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope, Western District, originating in 1847 from the division of the then single Cape mission, with several subsequent territorial amputations. It is entrusted to the secular clergy, and a cosmopolitan personnel works there amid no few difficulties, which, moreover, are common to all the missions of southern Africa.
The territory extends over 39,892 sq. km. and has approximately 600,000 inhabitants, 3/5 of them in the capital C. T. alone; very few Orthodox, but an overwhelming number of Protestants, more than 550,231, and 10,000 Mohammedans, while the pagan natives number only 5,000. According to the statistics of 1947: there are 72 priests, from almost all the Congregations; about half are secular. There are 39 brothers and 353 nuns. The Catholics number 28,700, and the catechumens 394. There are 30 convents, 50 schools of various levels with 12,176 pupils, 2 hospitals, 3 dispensaries, 3 orphanages, and 4 “hostels.” The mission publishes the weekly The Southern Cross, in many thousands of copies distributed throughout southern Africa.