Khartoum (Arabic al-Khartūm), Apostolic Vicariate of

KHARTUM (Arabic Ḥartūm), APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. — It comprises the whole central and northern part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Its evangelization was conceived by Mgr A. Casolani of Malta and begun by the Jesuit Fr M. Ryllo. The missionaries at first were secular priests and members of the Mazza Institute of Verona, among them 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 entire immense territory (2,610,000 sq km) bounded to the north by Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria; to the west by Senegambia and the two Guineas; to the south by the “Mountains of the Moon”; and to the east by Ethiopia. The missionaries suffered severe losses, and the survivors withdrew; consequently, on 12 September 1861, the vicariate was entrusted to the Friars Minor of Styria. But since they too soon had to withdraw, in 1868 it was temporarily placed under the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt until 11 June 1872, when it was ceded to the Institute of the Foreign Missions of Verona (Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), excluding the prefecture of the Sahara and Sudan (today, in part, the Apostolic Vicariate of Bamako). Its first apostolic vicar

was Mgr Daniele Comboni. In 1883, owing to the Mahdist revolt (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 continual progress, especially in the south. Subsequently, from 1894 to 1937, the vicariate suffered numerous territorial amputations through the erection of many new ecclesiastical jurisdictions, until, with the motu proprio Sancta Dei Ecclesia of 25 March 1938, which placed all of Egypt under the authority of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches, the area of Aswan likewise passed by right under the said Sacred Congregation, although in fact, owing to a combination of circumstances, implementation of this provision was delayed until the present. Despite this, the Apostolic Vicariate of K. remains extremely vast (over 2,000,000 sq km). In 1948 it counted, out of approximately 4,500,000 inhabitants, 3,200 Catholics, 15 catechumens, 1 indigenous priest and 35 foreign priests, 16 foreign lay brothers, 3 indigenous nuns, 99 foreign nuns, 3 catechists, and 62 teachers.