Dutch New Guinea, Apostolic Vicariate of

DUTCH NEW GUINEA, Apostolic Vicariate of. - It once comprised the entire Dutch part of New Guinea and the great archipelago of the Moluccas; a territory erected into an apostolic prefecture on 22 Dec. 1902 and elevated to a vicariate on 29 Aug. 1920, entrusted to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On 12 May 1949, it was divided for the erection of the apostolic prefecture of Hollandia (v.); the remaining part took the name of apostolic vicariate of Amboina, in turn dismembered on 24 June 1950 for the creation of the apostolic vicariate of Merauke (v.). On the same date the northern group of the Moluccas, namely Ternate, Tidore, Halmahera, Badjan and Morotai, was reannexed to the vicariate of Amboina, detaching it from the apostolic prefecture of Hollandia.

In this region the Catholic Church has been established for four centuries already. The first missionary attempts in the Moluccas were made, during the Portuguese regime, by the priests Simone Vaz and Francesco Alvarez (1534). The island of Halmahera was converted to Catholicism especially out of self-interest, in order to find protectors against invading Mohammedanism. Likewise, at that time, many inhabitants of South Amboina, aided by the Portuguese magistrate Calvao against the Mohammedans of North Amboina, were converted to the Faith. The success was such that, at the arrival of St. Francis Xavier, coming from Malacca (1546-47), there were already seven established parish communities there. Here the saint made numerous conversions, later pushing his apostolic excursions toward Ceram, Ternate and Morotai. In 1563 there were counted in Amboina almost 70,000 neophytes. But this mission was continually harassed by the Mohammedans, until 1569, when these were defeated with the help that came from Goa and through the construction of the protecting fortress of Amboina.

In 1595 the Dutch sailed for the first time to the Indies. The second expedition of 1599 split into two groups, one of which headed toward the archipelago of the Moluccas. They were Reformed (Calvinists) and adversaries of the Portuguese and, consequently, they sided with the natives, enemies of the Portuguese. It was a difficult time for Catholics, abandoned to the hatred of the Mohammedans on one side and of the Reformed on the other. At that time, besides the Jesuits, there were also Franciscans and Augustinians in Ternate. In 1605, the Portuguese having been definitively defeated, Amboina, Tidore and the other adjacent islands were incorporated into the Dutch East India Company. The mission of Ternate too, which had become a Spanish domain in 1606, ceased to exist in 1663, with the arrival of the Dutch. For almost three centuries access to these regions was legally forbidden to the organized work of Catholics. However, art. 177 of the government regulation for the Indies gradually received a mitigated interpretation. The revival began in 1852, when the secular priest de Hesselle made his first missionary excursion for Catholic soldiers. In 1895 the Jesuit Le Cocq d'Armandville attempted to found another mission in New Guinea, near Fak-Fak, but tragically. In 1902 the apostolate began at Merauke and in 1905 the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus arrived there, but without encouraging results, because of the very poor morals of the natives. In 1935 the Friars Minor assumed the care of the northern part of New Guinea, with principal residence at Hollandia.

Edoardo Pecorzio