INDORE, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. — Ecclesiastical district of central-southern India erected on 11 March 1935 with territory detached from the dioceses of Ajmer, Allahabad, and Nagpur. It is entrusted to the Missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word and is suffragan to Agra. It borders on the east with the Apostolic Prefecture of Jubbulpore, on the south with the dioceses of Nagpur and Poona, on the west with the Archdiocese of Bombay and the Diocese of Ajmer, and on the north also with the latter.
It covers an area of 110,000 sq. km. and has a population of approximately six and a half million inhabitants, divided as follows: 4,500,000 Hindus, 2,000,000 Muslims, 9,400 Protestants, and approximately 17,000 Catholics.
According to the latest statistics (1950), the missionary personnel consists of about thirty priests and ten lay brothers of the Society of the Divine Word, all foreigners, two Indian diocesan priests, and about seventy sisters, of whom 30 belong to the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of S. Maria degli Angeli, 17 to that of the Servants of the Holy Spirit (of Steyl), and 14 to two Congregations of indigenous sisters.
The prefecture is divided into 4 districts: I., Jhabua, Khandwa, Itarsi. There are 5 parishes, 15 primary stations, 245 secondary stations with chapels, and 16 dispensaries.
Instruction and education are provided in 51 elementary schools attended by 700 pupils, 3 middle schools with 430 pupils, and 3 secondary schools with nearly 1,700 students. The mission possesses 4 hospitals with 58 beds; in two public hospitals, patients are assisted by Catholic sisters. There are also 3 orphanages with about a hundred boys and girls. There are approximately 60 male teachers and 40 female teachers. Fifty-eight catechists and 5 women catechists prepare the ground for the missionary’s work. A minor seminary was recently erected and already has 20 seminarians. Some young clerics pursue studies in philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary of Bombay. The prefecture also has a printing press and several confraternities and pious associations.