Khartoum, Apostolic Vicariate of

KHARTOUM (Arabic al-Khartūm), Apostolic Vicariate of. - It comprises the whole central and northern part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Its evangelization was conceived by Msgr. A. Casolani of Malta and begun by the Jesuit Father M. Ryllo. At first the missionaries were secular priests and members of the Mazza Institute of Verona, among whom were Fathers A. Vinco and D. Comboni.

The apostolic vicariate, erected on 3 April 1846 under the name of apostolic vicariate of Central Africa, embraced the whole immense territory (2,610,000 sq. km.) bounded on the north by Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunisia and Algeria, on the west by Senegambia and the two Guineas, on the south by the "Mountains of the Moon," and on the east by Ethiopia. Among the missionaries there were grave losses, and the survivors withdrew, so that on 12 Sept. 1861 the vicariate was entrusted to the Friars Minor of Styria; but since they too had soon to withdraw, in 1868 it was temporarily subjected to the apostolic vicariate of Egypt until 11 June 1872, when it was ceded to the Institute of Foreign Missions of Verona (Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), with the exception of the prefecture of the Sahara and Sudan (today, in part, the apostolic vicariate of Bamako). Its first apostolic vicar was Msgr. Daniele Comboni. In 1883, because of the revolt of the Mahdi (v.), the mission stations were destroyed and many missionaries died, but, once the scourge had passed, the Sons of the Sacred Heart returned to their former positions, and from 1900 evangelization made continuous progress, especially in the south. The vicariate subsequently underwent, from 1894 to 1937, numerous mutilations of territory owing to the erection of numerous new ecclesiastical circumscriptions, until, by the motu proprio Sancta Dei Ecclesia of 25 March 1938, which placed all Egypt under the authority of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church, the Assuan area too passed by right under the said Sacred Congregation, although, in fact, owing to a combination of circumstances, the implementation of this provision has been delayed until the present. In spite of all this, the apostolic vicariate of K. remains always very vast (over 2,000,000 sq. km.). In 1948 it counted, out of about 4,500,000 inhabitants, 3200 Catholics, 15 catechumens, 1 native priest and 35 foreign priests, 16 foreign lay brothers, 3 native sisters, 99 foreign sisters, 3 catechists, 62 teachers.

Carlo Corvo