GIAFFA - Overview.
1,500 blacks. England prohibited Catholic worship there and persecuted those who professed II.
Thousands of slaves and political convicts were brought into the territory. Only in 1792 were Catholic priests sent by the apostolic vicar of London able to return permanently; true missionary work, however, resumed in 1837 with the arrival of the Jesuit Fathers. On 10 Jan. 1837 the apostolic vicariate was also erected, comprising the whole island of G., the Bahamas, and British Honduras.
These latter two territories were subsequently constituted as autonomous vicariates. The mission has an area of 11,525 sq. km., with a population of approximately 1,365,000 inhabitants, of whom 83,513 are Catholics, 682 catechumens, 1,120,657 Protestants, 1,277 Jews, and the remainder pagans or atheists. The spiritual care of the faithful is undertaken by 63 Jesuit priests, 3 lay brothers, 176 nuns, 41 catechists, and 259 teachers. The vicariate is divided into 22 primary stations and 49 secondary stations. There are 5 churches and 66 chapels. Charitable institutions consist of a hospital with 45 beds, 2 orphanages with 416 boys and 265 girls, 1 home for the aged, 1 leper colony, 1 shelter for women with 36 places, and 2 for young people and boys with 24 places. The schools are distributed as follows: 44 elementary schools with 5,664 boys and 6,254 girls; 9 middle schools with 358 boys and 1,023 girls; 1 secondary school with 250 male and 150 female pupils; 1 teacher-training school with 45 female pupils. There are also 9 private elementary schools. These statistical data refer to 1949.