KISANTU, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - Located in the south-western part of the Belgian Congo and entrusted to the Society of Jesus, it was erected on 10 April 1931 with territory taken from the Apostolic Vicariate of Koango. Area approximately 90,000 sq. km.
According to the 1948 statistics, the population numbers over 443,000, divided as follows: native Catholics 165,968, foreign Catholics 182, catechumens 15,252, Protestants about 27,000, pagans over 235,000. The vicariate also has: 27 native priests, 43 Jesuit Fathers with 10 scholastics, 19 native brothers with 2 novices, 28 native brothers of whom 15 are Jesuits and 13 belong to the Congregation of Our Lady of Ostaker (Belgium), 7 native sisters with 9 novices, 85 foreign sisters, 1 major seminary with 40 students, 1 minor seminary with 136 students, 180 catechists, 480 male teachers and 64 female teachers, 25 qualified nurses, 16 principal mission stations and 155 secondary ones, 142 churches and 580 chapels, 10 hospitals with 360 beds, 22 dispensaries with 234,624 consultations in the year, 5 orphanages with 20 pupils, 8 maternity centres with 13,136 consultations and 731 births in the year, a printing press which issues a periodical in 250 copies, 1,322 schools with 36,369 pupils of both sexes. There are flourishing Catholic Action associations. Two mission stations have already been officially entrusted to the native clergy, and a third provisionally.