Caquetá, Apostolic Vicariate of

CAQUETÁ, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - In Colombia. The territory of C. was first evangelized, with the Spanish conquest, by the Franciscans, who came from Quito and from Papayán and remained there until the beginning of the 19th century, making numerous conversions and watering the soil of the mission itself with their blood. Toward the middle of the 19th century, that is, once Colombia's war of independence had ended, some Jesuit fathers came to C., and they departed from it after two years. From 1880 the mission remained entrusted to the archdiocese of Papayán and then to the diocese of Pasto, from which it was dismembered in 1902 in order to be erected as an apostolic prefecture, assigned to the Capuchin fathers of Catalonia, who had made their entry into the territory four years earlier. In 1930 it was erected as an apostolic vicariate.

The total area of the mission is 257,240 sq km; there are about 64,300 inhabitants, of whom 63,000 are Catholics and the rest pagans. Working there are 24 Capuchin religious and one secular priest, two communities of Marist Brothers numbering 10 and four communities of Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis numbering 80, and both the one and the other direct schools, orphanages and hospitals. The territory is divided into 11 parishes and one parochial vicariate. The mission borders on the dioceses of Garzón, Ibarra, Pasto, Papayán, on the apostolic vicariate of Piani di San Martino and the apostolic prefecture of San Leone delle Amazzoni.

Antonio Mazza