DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. - It occupies the eastern part (about 2/3) of Columbus's Hispaniola, today commonly called the island of Haiti. It covers 50,000 sq km and has (1947 estimate) 2.2 million inhabitants (44 per sq km).
The country is not lacking in resources (metals, phosphates, petroleum), which are, however, still very little exploited; it produces above all sugar, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, fine woods, etc. Independent since 27 February 1844, it was occupied by the U.S.A. between 1916 and 1934; it forms a unitary republic (divided into 18 provinces and 1 federal district), representative, with a bicameral parliament and direct universal suffrage. The capital, Ciudad Trujillo (founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496 under the name of S. Domingo), is the only city with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Bibliography4 works
Giuseppe Caraci
EVANGELIZATION OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The history of Christianity in Santo Domingo begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus on December 6, 1492. On his second expedition, in 1493, he was accompanied by Bernardo Boyl of the Minims, by three Franciscans and two
Knights of St. John, who began the work of evangelization among the Indians of the island, baptizing about 3,000 of them by the end of the 15th century.
In Santo Domingo the first Mass on American soil was celebrated on January 6, 1494, and there were subsequently established the first convents, the first Catholic schools and the first episcopal see for America, created a diocese in 1511 and elevated to an archdiocese in 1546. There Fra Bartolomé de Las Casas and Fra Antonio de Montesinos, both Dominicans, struggled in defense of the Indians; and there too arose the first University of America, erected by Pope Paul III with the bull In Apostolatus culmine of October 28, 1538 (cf. Acto Academico para rendir tributo a la memoria de S. S. el papa Paulo III, published by the University of Santo Domingo, Ciudad Trujillo 1949) and entrusted to the Order of Preachers. Having obtained independence in 1844, above all through the contribution of those young patriots called "Trinitarians," because they were consecrated to the Most Holy Trinity, their leader Juan Pablo Duarte placed the symbol of the Cross on the Dominican flag and put the book of the Gospels in the coat of arms of the Republic. The Dominican Republic was therefore born intimately associated with the Church, so much so that the priest Fernando Arturo de Meriño occupied the presidency of the Republic in 1880, and after him the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Adolfo Alejandro Nouel, held the same office. In art. 93 of the Constitution the relations between State and Church are thus regulated: "The relations of the State and the Church continued to be those very same that they are at present, while the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion is the religion professed by the majority of Dominicans." The representation to the Holy See was elevated to the rank of embassy in 1945, and in parallel the pontifical representation to the Dominican Republic was elevated to a nunciature.