Harar, Apostolic Vicariate of

HARAR, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - It is located in eastern Ethiopia on the borders of French, British and Italian Somaliland. Erected on 4 May 1846 under the name Vicariatus apostolicus Africae ad populos Galla, it had a great apostle who worked there from that year until 1880, Massaia.

On 15 Jan. 1894 the boundaries of the vicariate of the Galla were fixed with the vicariate of Khartoum (then vicariate of Central Africa); on 28 Jan. 1913 the apostolic prefecture of Kaffa was detached from it; on 8 Sept. 1913 the boundaries with it were modified, and likewise on 20 Feb. 1925 and 10 March 1926. On 13 Feb. 1925 the part of Abyssinian Somaliland was ceded to the apostolic prefecture of Djibouti. On 25 March 1937, through the reorganization of all the missions of Ethiopia, it received its present name of H. It has an area of 202,000 sq km and, at the time of its erection, had a population of about 2,000,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,000,000 were Mohammedans, 300,000 dissidents of the Coptic rite and 200,000 pagans. Under the administration of the Capuchins it made great progress. But the war, which forced the exodus of the Italian missionaries, halted the development of the vicariate, from which were also confiscated the new and grandiose buildings of the episcopal residence and of the Seminary. If not everything was lost, this is due to the providential existence of a certain number of good indigenous priests of the Latin rite. In 1948 the vicariate counted 1,200,000 unbelievers (among pagans and Muslims), 300,000 dissidents of the Coptic rite, 7,583 Catholics of the Latin rite with 51 catechumens, 13 indigenous priests, one foreign missionary priest and one foreign lay brother, four foreign sisters and 16 indigenous ones, 12 principal stations, 56 baptisms of adults and 323 of children administered in the year, 12 dispensaries with 55,000 sick persons assisted, several asylums with numerous inmates, 15 primary schools with 834 pupils of both sexes, 12 churches, 12 chapels. There is also Catholic Action (17 centers with 308 members).

Carlo Corvo