LISALA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. – In the Belgian Congo, entrusted to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Missionaries of Scheut). It was erected on 3 April 1919 under the name of the Apostolic Vicariate of New Antwerp, with a large territory detached from the Apostolic Vicariate of the Belgian Congo. It underwent territorial and boundary modifications due to new divisions and had its name changed to that of the Apostolic Vicariate of L. on 27 January 1936.
It has an area of approximately 130,000 sq. km., and, according to the 1950 statistics, 750,000 inhabitants, of whom 217,528 are native Catholics and 551 foreign, 8,173 catechumens, approximately 42,000 Protestants, 96 Muslims and approximately 465,000 pagans. It is served by 112 regular priests and 9 native priests, distributed across 26 mission stations with 25 churches and 1,225 chapels. It has 4 male and 14 female congregations, 469 schools, 8 hospitals, 8 orphanages, and 1 leper colony. It publishes a periodical in 3,500 copies; and many confraternities and associations of charity and Catholic Action flourish there. – See pl. XCVII.