MAKASSAR, VICARIATO APOSTOLICO di. - Nella parte meridionale dell'isola di Celebes (Indonesia) eretta in prefettura apostolica il 13 apr. 1937 per di-
In the 16th century, Fr. Vincenzo Viega was the first to arrive in M., coming from Goa, and resided there from 1545 to 1548. Much later, specifically in 1615, the Jesuits arrived. They were followed by the Franciscans in 1620 and the Dominicans in 1649. But their evangelical work was hindered and indeed stopped by Dutch Protestants, who forced the Catholic missionaries to abandon the field. The year 1853 marked the resumption of evangelization, when indigenous soldiers who had embraced the Catholic religion on the island of Java, upon returning to Celebes, obtained, with government permission, a visit from a priest of the Society of Jesus. Subsequently, the Jesuits, not without many difficulties, gathered abundant fruits of conversion and in 1885 established their residence in Manado and in 1893 in M. Later, the missionaries of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Scheut) took over, to whom the mission of M. is currently entrusted. The city of M., a port on the island of Celebes, has become the capital of the new State of East Indonesia, formed by Celebes, Bali, Lombok, and the islands located to the east, the Moluccas, and the islands located to the south, with a population of 10,000,000 inhabitants belonging to 50 different races, with about forty different languages.
It now has an area of 98,939 sq. km. with 3,600,000 inhabitants, of whom 7,817 are Catholics, served by 28 priests of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with 39 stations, assisted by one male religious community and 4 female ones. It has 35 schools and 8 works of charity and beneficence.