Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
OYO, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - Located in the southern part of Nigeria (British West Africa), entrusted to the Society of Missionaries of Africa
OZANAM, ANTOINE-FRÉDÉRIC - Letter from O. to the Minister of Public Instruction, who had granted him an extension for his stay in Italy due to a literary mission - Paris, National Archives, F. 21423, p. 4.which had been working there since 1944; it was erected on 3 March 1949 from part of the territory of the then Apostolic Vicariate of Lagos (now an archdiocese).
It has an area of approx. 33,000 sq. km., with approx. 1,000,000 inhabitants, of whom only a few thousand are Catholics, with over 2,000 catechumens amidst an overwhelmingly pagan majority and strong Muslim and Protestant communities.
There are about ten churches and over 40 chapels, 16 White Fathers with one lay brother and 41 catechists. It is an apostolic field where much remains to be done, for the further north one goes, the more the territory is untouched.
BIBL.: MC, 1930, p. 120; AAS, 41 (1949), pp. 434-35; Catholic Directory of East Africa (Supplement), Mombasa, 1950, p. 174; Arch. S. Congr. de Prop. Fide, posiz. prot. n. 150/49. Carlo Corvo
Cite this article
“OYO, PREFETTURA APOSTOLICA DI.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX (1952), p. 311. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/oyo-prefettura-apostolica-di.
