APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF THARE. - It is located in Siam or Thailand, comprising its entire northeastern part, that is, Phak Isan, divided into fifteen departments.
It has an area of 145,000 sq km with a population of 4,800,764 inhabitants. On 4 May 1899 the apostolic vicariate of Laos was erected, extending through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, by dismemberment of the apostolic vicariate of Eastern Siam, now in part the apostolic vicariate of Bangkok. On 8 Aug. 1924 the Cambodian province of Strung-treng was detached from it and annexed to the apostolic vicariate of Cambodia, today the apostolic vicariate of Phnom-penh, and on 14 June 1938 the apostolic prefecture of Vientiane and Luang-Prabang, now the vicariate of Vientiane, was separated from it. On 21 Dec. 1950 the same apostolic vicariate of Laos was divided for the erection of the apostolic prefecture of Thakhek. At the same time, the ancient vicariate of Laos, to which only the Siamese territory had remained, changed its name to that of apostolic vicariate of T., from the city of residence of the Ordinary. On 7 May 1953 the apostolic prefecture of Udonthani and the apostolic vicariate of Ubon were detached from it. It is entrusted to the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, whose Fathers settled in Thailand from the very beginnings of that Society. Subsequently, it was the missionaries G. B. Prudhomme and Francesco Saverio Guego, sent by the apostolic vicar of Siam, who opened the first station at Ubon, a Siamese city, where at Christmas of 1859 they were able to baptize the first catechumens. Methodical and progressive evangelization began only in 1881, when, across the Mekong River, whose left bank had been occupied by France, easier routes of communication with Saigon, the capital of Cochinchina, were opened up.
There are 27,406 Catholics, with 250 catechumens; 32 priests, of whom 15 are native; 105 native sisters "Amantes Crucis", 6 major and 84 minor seminarians; 104 catechists; 40 teachers. There are 45 sacred buildings; 8 orphanages; 6 kindergartens; 2 elementary schools; 2 secondary schools.
Bibliography5 works
Edoardo Pecoraio