MANADO, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - In the northern part of the island of Celebes (Indonesia), erected as an apostolic prefecture of Celebes on 19 Nov. 1919, by detachment from the apostolic vicariate of Batavia (today Djakarta), elevated to an apostolic vicariate of Celebes on 1 Feb. 1934, on 13 Apr. 1937 it took its present name of M., when the apostolic prefecture (today apostolic vicariate) of Makassar was detached from it.
The first to preach the Catholic faith in this region in 1563 was the Jesuit Diego Magelhaes. Other Jesuits succeeded one another between 1568 and 1608, followed by the Franciscans, but not without difficulties and arrests because of the expansion of Dutch rule. The inhabitants, ethnographically speaking, belong to the Malay type, mixed with Mongoloid and Chinese elements.
Over an area of 90,597 sq km, it has 1,400,000 inhabitants, of whom 33,000 are Catholics, 700,000 Muslims, 500,000 Protestants, 100,000 pagans. Since 1934 the Protestant Church has been constituted sui iuris, but besides this official Church there are many other sects of lesser importance, such as, for example, Adventists, the Salvation Army, Pentecostals, etc. The western part of the mission is almost entirely Muslim and Protestant. The official language is Malay, called Indonesian. The vicariate has 109 churches and chapels, of which 4 are parishes, served by 3 native priests and 32 religious, assisted by 2 male religious communities and 5 female ones. It has 88 schools and 14 charitable and welfare institutions. Two newspapers are published there: Gredja Katolik, since 1903, and Rankoian Pemuda, since 1945. The mission, according to local civil laws, enjoys legal personality. It is entrusted to the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Bibliography5 works
Edoardo Pecoraro