MITU, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. – In Colombia, established on 9 June 1949 by partitioning the apostolic vicariate of Piani di S. Martino (today Villavicencio). It comprises the entire comissaria of Vau-
pès, situated in the eastern regions. It is entrusted to the Seminary for Foreign Missions of Yarumal, which has sent there 8 priests with several lay assistants.
The Mission covers an area of 150,000 sq km, with a population of 8,000 inhabitants, consisting of whites and Indians. The former engage in the cultivation of cacao and live in the towns of M., the capital of the territory, S. Josè del Guaviarè, and Calamar; they lead a highly licentious life and look unfavourably upon the missionaries because the latter rebuke their bad customs and defend the rights of the Indians. The latter are scattered along the riverbanks; in each large hut, called a maloca, several families live.
The missionaries have attempted to gather them into small settlements, but so far have succeeded in forming only four villages with schools and churches on the banks of the Papuri stream, called Acaricuara, Montfort, Piracuara, and Teresita. The number of Catholics is difficult to assess. On the basis of approximate calculations, it may be presumed to amount to 4,500. Missionary work is made arduous by the vast extent of the territory and the limited means of communication, consisting for the most part of mule tracks that are impassable during the rainy seasons. At present, boarding schools and vocational schools are being organized to provide for the education of the young. The Sisters Hermanas de María Immaculada y de S. Catalina de Sena, a missionary congregation with its mother house at Madellin (Colombia), care for the hospitals and orphanages.