KISANTU, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - Located in the southwestern part of the Belgian Congo and entrusted to the Society of Jesus, it was erected on April 1, 1931, with territory detached from the apostolic vicariate of Koango. Area approx. 90,000 sq km.
According to the statistics of 1948, the population is over 443,000 inhabitants, divided as follows: 165,968 indigenous Catholics, 182 foreign Catholics, 15,252 catechumens, approx. 27,000 Protestants, over 235,000 pagans. The vicariate furthermore has: 27 indigenous priests, 43 Jesuit fathers with 10 scholastics, 19 indigenous brothers with 2 novices, 28 indigenous brothers of whom 15 are Jesuits and 13 belong to the Congregation of Our Lady of Ostaker (Belgium), 7 indigenous sisters with 9 novices, 85 foreign sisters, 1 major seminary with 40 students, a minor one with 136 students, 1,803 catechists, 480 male teachers and 64 female teachers, 25 trained 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 wards with 13,136 consultations and 731 births in the year, 1 printing press that prints a periodical in 3,500 copies, 1,322 schools with 36,369 pupils of both sexes. There are flourishing associations of Catholic Action. Two mission stations have already been officially entrusted to the indigenous clergy, and a third provisionally.
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Carlo Corvo