UBANGI BELGA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE of - Located at the northwestern tip of the Belgian Congo. It is entirely contained within the limits of the Equator province and of the civil district of Congo-Ubangi, whose civil territories of Libenge, Gemena, Bosobolo and Banzyville it embraces.

Erected as an apostolic prefecture on 7 April 1911, with territory detached from the then apostolic vicariate of the Belgian Congo, it was elevated to a vicariate on 28 January 1935. It is cared for by the Capuchin Fathers of the Belgian province and by some Fathers of the Italian province of Alessandria.

The work of evangelization began in the region of Banzyville on 1 December 1910 with the founding of the first mission station. Over an area of about 79,000 sq. km. there are 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 104,334 are Catholics, 3,146 Protestants, 162 Muslims, and the others pagan fetishists. The vicariate has: 14 principal mission stations and 7 secondary ones, 1 native priest and 52 foreign priests (all Capuchins), 2 indigenous sisters and 31 foreign sisters, 678 catechists, 501 male and female teachers, 362 schools among elementary, vocational and normal. It provides for social and health care with 9 hospitals, 6 leprosariums and 8 orphanages. It possesses 2 printing presses with a monthly periodical, Fana lo, of 2,000 copies. In every principal mission station Catholic Action is active. The average rate of conversions, from 1910 to today, can be set at about 3,000 persons each year.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: AAS, 3 (1911), p. 198; 27 (1935), pp. 433-34; Arch. S. Congr. de Prop. Fide, pos. prot. nn. 537-11, 450/35, 3462/50, 3124/52; Van Wing - V. Goémé, Annuaire des Missions Cath. au Congo-Belge et au Rwanda Urumdi, Bruxelles 1949, pp. 500-17.

Mariano Clementi

@incollection{ec12_ubangi_belga_vicariato_apostol, author = {Clementi, Mariano}, title = {Ubangi Belga, vicariato apostolico di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {660}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ubangi-belga-vicariato-apostolico-di} }

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Ubangi Belga, Apostolic Vicariate of

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