PANAMA. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - The Republic of P., the southernmost of the Central American ones, having broken away from Colombia in 1903, occupies the narrow (70-100 km.), elongated isthmus that joins the most expanded zone of Central America to South America; an isthmus divided in two by the canal of the same name.

PANAMA - 1) State border; 2) border of ecclesiastical district; 3) railways.
(Ist. Enc. Catt.)

The territory (74,000 sq. km.), covered with mountains (volcanoes) and hills, is difficult to traverse; the scarcity of communications delays its development. It produces mainly bananas, cocoa, coffee, coconut and sugar cane. The forests are rich but little exploited; water resources are notable. Of the 802,000 inhabitants (11 per sq. km.), more than half are mestizos, few are whites (6%); the rest are Blacks, Amerindians and mulattoes. Catholics make up 93% of the total. It comprises 9 provinces; it is governed by a president and an assembly, both elective and renewable every 4 years. The capital, Panama (150,000 inhabitants), and Colón (53,000 inhabitants) at the two ends of the canal, are the only two notable population centers. The Panamanian merchant fleet (3,016,000 tons) almost equals, in tonnage, the French one.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: A. Edwards, P., the canal, the country and the people, London 1914; W. D. McCain, The U. S. and the Republic of P., Cambridge 1937.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. EVANGELIZATION

The evangelization of P. followed immediately upon the Spanish conquest, through the work of the Franciscans. In 1513, in fact, the diocese of St. Mary in Darien had already been established (within the present-day borders of Colombia): it was entrusted to the Franciscan Giovanni di Quevedo. It was the first diocese of the entire new continent.

In 1519 the seat of the diocese was transferred from Darien to Panama, where the Dominican Reginaldo di Pedrazza was sent from Santo Domingo with some companions. Panama was the point of departure for all military expeditions, and the apostolic conquests of the north and the south had their base of support in the diocese of the same name. Toward the middle of the 16th century the Augustinians also came to be added. In 1648 the Capuchins entered Panama, where they immediately made great progress. From 1604 the Jesuits, setting out from their colleges in New Granada (Colombia), organized flying missions that had good results. But then came the suppression of the Jesuits, the struggle for independence against Spain (the Spanish missionaries were driven out), then the revolutionary upheavals, and the Church suffered very grave harm.

At present it comprises the archdiocese of Panama (Nov. 29, 1925) and the apostolic vicariate of Darien (v.).

Bibliography

BIBL.: G. Rojas y Arrieta, History of the bishops of P., Panama 1929.

Nicola Kowalsky

III. SCHOOL SYSTEM

Art. 26, title III, of the Panamanian Constitution provides for freedom of teaching of every religion that is not in conflict with Christian morality and with public order. The Catholic religion is defined as that of the majority of the inhabitants of the Republic, and consequently the State undertakes to give it its own support, permitting the existence in the capital of a Catholic seminary and the activity of Catholic missions among the natives. The founding of private schools is permitted only when they follow the teaching program of the public schools. The entire school system depends on the Secretariat of Education and comprises 815 primary schools divided into 763 rural primary schools and 52 urban primary schools. There also exist 13 elementary schools for the Indians, secondary, industrial, vocational and higher schools. The latter comprise the Escuela de pintura, the Conservatorio nacional and the Universidad de Panamá founded in 1935. - See plate L.