EASTERN NEW GUINEA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. — Situated in the north-western part of New Guinea, under Australian mandate and entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word.
The territory, detached from the Apostolic Vicariate of New Guinea (erected 10 May 1889), was in turn erected as an Apostolic Prefecture on 24 February 1896; then, on 25 July 1913, it was divided with the erection of the new Apostolic Prefecture of Western New Guinea (now Central New Guinea) and designated by the name of Eastern New Guinea; upon its elevation to an Apostolic Vicariate (23 November 1922) it also took its present name of Eastern New Guinea; and subsequently it underwent further boundary modifications (27 April 1927; 15 April 1931).
The first missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word, led by the Apostolic Prefect E. Limbroche, arrived in the territory of German New Guinea on 13 August 1896, founding a station on Tumleo Island (now within the Apostolic Vicariate of Central New Guinea). They had, however, been preceded by Protestants, who are now very numerous, especially in the Morobe district, where Catholics have only recently been able to open stations at Gumbi and Lae, thus delaying the establishment of Catholic missions.
The vicariate covers an area of 493,333 sq. km., with about 200,000 inhabitants of Melanesian race, of whom 35,147 are Catholics and 28,051 catechumens. Foreign priests 40, brothers 14, sisters 17, catechists 448. Primary stations 32, secondary 389, churches 75, chapels 1,451. Elementary schools 236, secondary 1, dispensaries 8, hospitals 1.