Rwanda, Apostolic Vicariate of

RUANDA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of. — Situated near the northern extremity of Lake Tanganyika, it is under Belgian mandate and administratively united with the Belgian Congo.

Having remained, together with the territory of Urundi, strongly xenophobic and closed both to whites and to Muslims—the latter of whom were never able to raid it for slaves except very rarely along the shores of the lake—it was explored in 1894 by the German Goetzen, who discovered Lake Kivu. The White Fathers arrived there at the beginning of the twentieth century, coming from Urundi, and, despite serious difficulties, achieved excellent apostolic results. In 1913 R.-Urundi, which since 1878 had formed part of the Apostolic Provicariate of Tanganyika and since 1886 had been annexed to the immense Apostolic Vicariate of Unyanemke, Kivu (v.) and on 25 April 1922 was divided into the two vicariates of R. and Urundi. While the latter, on 14 July 1949, was divided into the two Ngozi (v.), the former, on 14 February 1952, was in turn subdivided into the two vicariates of Kabgayi and Nyundo. The Apostolic Vicariate of Kabgayi, which extends over approximately 20,950 sq. km. in the south-eastern part of the territory of R. and has a population of approximately 1,531,000 inhabitants, of whom more than 327,700 are Catholics and more than 189,700 catechumens, has remained entrusted to the White Fathers; the Apostolic Vicariate of Nyundo, on the other hand, which comprises the north-western region of the territory of R. and has an area of approximately 3,100 sq. km. with a population of approximately 360,000 inhabitants, of whom more than 45,300 are Catholics and more than 22,500 catechumens,

has been entrusted to the indigenous clergy, which is very numerous in the region. In fact, in R. there are 89 native priests, outnumbering the foreign priests, who number

88. It is therefore an exceptionally flourishing region from the missionary standpoint, where the Gospel seed has made remarkable progress, finding few parallels in the history of the Church or among the other missions currently scattered throughout the world