TAHITI, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF THE ISLANDS. – It is located in eastern Oceania and comprises all the islands of the French Establishments of Oceania, with the exception of the Marquesas Islands.
The first attempts at evangelization took place in the eighteenth century through the efforts of Manuel de Amat, viceroy of Lima. The Franciscan missionaries who landed at Valurua on 19 November 1772 departed again on 20 December of the same year. The second mission, inaugurated on 1 January 1775, was likewise abandoned on 12 November of that year. Toward the end of the same century, several Anglican ministers settled there. In 1836, Fathers Laval and Caret unsuccessfully attempted to resume the apostolate. In 1841 it became possible to begin a genuine mission, amid Protestant hostility. On 9 May 1848, the T. Islands were erected into a vicariate, when the Apostolic Vicariate of Polynesia or Eastern Oceania was divided. It also included Easter Island, which was annexed to the archdiocese of Santiago de Chile by decree of 8 February 1889 (implemented in 1921 by the apostolic nuncio), as well as the Cook Islands (v.) and Manihiki, detached in 1922. By 1875, the Tuamotu Islands were already largely Catholic. Work began in the Leeward Islands in 1906 and in the Tubuai and Rapa Islands in 1908.
