ONITSHA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - In the central-southern part of Nigeria. Missionaries of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, coming from Gabon (French Equatorial Africa), established themselves there in 1885.
On 25 July 1889, the Apostolic Prefecture of Lower Niger was detached from the Apostolic Vicariate of the Two Guineas, and was later elevated on 16 April 1920 to an Apostolic Vicariate under the name of Southern Nigeria, entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. From this vicariate, the Prefectures of Benue (now Oturkpo) and Calabar (now a diocese) were detached on 9 July 1934, while the vicariate itself had its name changed to that of O.-Owerri. On 12 February 1948, the territory of Owerri became an independent Apostolic Vicariate; the remaining territory remained an Apostolic Vicariate under the sole name of O.; and on 18 April 1950, with the erection of the episcopal hierarchy in British Africa, it was raised to the status of an archdiocese.
Area: 12,770 sq. km.; population: approx. 1,250,000; Catholics: 148,579 with 55,046 catechumens; Protestants: approx. 50,000; Muslims: approx. 5,000; pagans: approx. 1,000,000. Native priests: 5; foreign priests: 57; foreign lay brothers: 5; native sisters: 4; foreign sisters: 35; catechists: 2,066; one major and one minor seminary with numerous students. Principal mission stations: 21; secondary: 518; churches: 98; chapels: 415; hospitals: 21; dispensaries: 21; orphanages: 2; leper asylums: 5. Elementary schools: 456; middle schools: 3; normal schools: 6. There are 145 associations of Catholic Action.