THAKHEK, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — It is located in Laos—a country governed as a constitutional monarchy—and comprises four civil provinces: Camnon, Savannakhet, Saravane, and Bassac.
It has a total area of approximately 100,000 sq. km., extending almost entirely along the demarcation line of the Mekong River. It was erected on December 21, 1950, by separation from the present Apostolic Vicariate of Tharé and is entrusted to the Paris Foreign Missions Society. These Fathers went to Thailand from the founding of their Society and attempted, as early as the time of Monsignor Palla and repeatedly thereafter, to enter Laos; however, their permanent residence in that country dates from 1876. The first missionary, indeed the first European, to enter Laos appears to have been the Jesuit Giovanni Maria Liera, who arrived in Vientiane around 1630.
The population consists of three main ethnic groups: Lao, Sô, and Khas. These natives are more animistic than Buddhist and are easily converted; in recent years several pagan villages have requested a priest. Out of a population of approximately 800,000, there are 5,617 Catholics, nearly all practicing, and 529 catechumens. There are 19 Fathers of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and 3 indigenous priests, two of whom are Lao and one Vietnamese. Some Swiss Protestant pastors, who have been there for 50 years, have gained only a very small number of converts: at their center in Kengkok, they have barely 150 adherents. The government places no obstacles in the way of preaching the Gospel. Christians are scattered throughout the region. There are 30 catechists, 16 teachers, a convent of the "Amantes Crucis" (indigenous) with 16 professed sisters; a convent of the Sisters of Charity with 30 professed sisters; 4 major seminarians and 18 minor.
The mission possesses 23 elementary schools, 2 middle schools run by the Sisters of Charity in T. and Paks; and 2 orphanages. There are 34 churches; 15 districts; 16 main stations and 18 secondary ones.