Tripoli, Apostolic Vicariate of

TRIPOLI, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of - It comprises most of Tripolitania and is entrusted to the Order of Friars Minor. Christianity flourished greatly in those regions in the first centuries of the Church, but with the Arab invasion it almost completely disappeared.

From the earliest times of the founding of the Franciscan Order, missionaries belonging to it went to Libya (v.) to ransom the slaves of the then Regency of T. Only in the 19th century, however, could a true missionary work begin to be carried out there which, after the Italian occupation (1912), made notable progress, though the missionaries' assistance was for the most part limited to the Italians residing there. On 23 Feb. 1913 the apostolic vicariate of Libya was erected; on 3 Feb. 1927 it was divided into the two vicariates of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, which were then, on 22 June 1939, subdivided into the apostolic vicariate of T. and the apostolic prefecture of Misurata, the apostolic vicariate of Benghazi (v.) and the apostolic vicariate of Derna (v.). With the proclamation of the independent State of Libya (24 Dec. 1951), among the directives laid down by H. M. Idris I es-Senūsi, particular mention was made of freedom of religion and worship and of respect for minorities and their local legal statutes. Moreover, T. (which is the winter capital of the new Kingdom) finds itself in better conditions, especially as regards the future of missionary action, compared with Benghazi (which is the summer capital), where the principal center and seat of the well-known Islamic sect, the Senussia, has by now been re-established, of which the King of Libya himself, who retains the title of "emir of Cyrenaica," is the head.

Nevertheless, throughout Libya the registration by the new government of the various places of worship already in operation under the Italian occupation is being carried out in favor of the missions, in accordance with a decision of the UN that opportunely intervened on behalf of the minorities. The vicariate of T. has an area of 191,200 sq km with a population of almost 500,000 inhabitants, of whom barely 30 are indigenous Catholics and another 30 are Catholics of mixed stock. Foreign Catholics number 36,300, Eastern dissidents about 400, Protestants about 1,500, Jews 7,751, and the remainder (that is, about 440,000) Muslims. There are 28 priests belonging to the Friars Minor and 2 secular priests with 9 Franciscan lay brothers, all Italians; 120 nuns, in the great majority Italians, with a few Maltese; 18 quasi-parishes with 14 secondary mission stations, 10 churches and 22 chapels; a periodical with a circulation of 1,600 copies. See illustrations at v. LIBIA; TRIPOLITANIA.

Carlo Corvo