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The Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Nyanza (Latin: Vicariatus Apostolicus Victoriensis–Nyanzensis Meridionalis) was a Roman Catholic mission territory in Eastern and Central Africa. It was an apostolic vicariate split out from the larger Vicariate of Nyanza in June 1894. It lost territory to the Apostolic Vicariate of Kivu in 1912, and was divided into the vicariates of Bukoba and Mwanza in 1929.

Background

John Joseph Hirth was consecrated Vicar Apostolic of Nyanza on 25 May 1890. This area included parts of modern-day Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and northern Tanzania. A civil war broke out in Buganda in 1892, during which the Catholic camp was totally defeated. Hirth and the White Fathers moved to the Bukoba kingdoms of Kiziba and Bugabo in 1892 with about fifty Baganda Christian converts. In December 1892 they founded a mission at Kashozi, in what is now the extreme north of Tanzania. In 1894 the diocese of Nyanza was split into Southern Nyanza, south and west of Lake Victoria, an eastern portion called "Upper Nile" that was given to the English Mill Hill Missionaries, and a northern portion called "Northern Nyanza" that covered the south and west of today's Uganda. Hirth was appointed vicar Apostolic of Southern Nyanza on 13 July 1894.

Location

The Vicariate lay to the north of the Apostolic Vicariate of Unyanyembe, and comprised the land surrounding the southern half of Lake Victoria from Lake Kivu in the west to Lake Natron in the east, on the Anglo-German colonial frontier of the time (36º E). The mission thus included the northern portion of German East Africa. According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, "The vicariate contains about 2,500,000 pagans, 7000 Catholics, 12,000 catechumens, 30 White Fathers; 23 lay brothers; 6 Missionary Sisters of Notre-Dame-d'Afrique; 20 churches or chapels; 15 stations; 85 schools with 3900 pupils; 190 catechists; 4 orphanages and 5 dispensaries; and a meteorological station belonging to the missionaries."

History

Hirth made Kashozi his Episcopal See. He later moved to Rubya, where he founded a seminary, and was personally involved in training future priests for Bukoba and Rwanda. Joseph Sweens was appointed coadjutor bishop to Hirth on 17 December 1909. He reached South Nyanza in April 1910. Hirth returned to his old residence at Kashozi, leaving Sweens to live at the seminary of Rubya. For the next three years Sweens visited the different stations of the diocese, resolved problems and represented the diocese to the civil authorities.

In 1912 the missions of Burundi, formerly part of the Vicariate of Unyanyembe, were joined with the missions of Rwanda to form the new Apostolic Vicariate of Kivu, with Hirth as the first Vicar Apostolic. South Nyanza now consisted only of the regions of Bukoba and Mwanza to the south of Lake Victoria. On 12 December 1912 Sweens succeeded Hirth as Vicar Apostolic of South Nyanza. On 15 January 1915 the territory was renamed the Vicariate Apostolic of Victoria-Nyanza. In April 1929 the vicariate was divided into two more manageable units, the vicariates of Bukoba and Mwanza.

References

Citations

1. Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bukavu.
2. Minnaert 2008, p. 188.
3. Sundkler & Steed 2000, p. 594.
4. ^ Bukoba Catholic Diocese in Brief.
5. Shorter 2003.
6. Herbermann et al. 1912, p. 413.
7. ^ MacErlean 1912.
8. ^ Shorter 2011, p. 79.
9. ^ Gahungu 2007, p. 62.
10. Cheney 2013.

Sources

• "Bukoba Catholic Diocese in Brief". Bukoba Catholic Diocese. Archived from the original on 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2013-03-30.
• Cheney, David M. (28 January 2013). "Bishop Joseph Francis Marie Sweens, M. Afr". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 2013-03-29.
• Gahungu, Méthode (2007). Former les prêtres en Afrique: Le rôle des Pères Blancs (1879–1936). l'Harmattan. p. 186. ISBN 978-2-296-04471-5. Retrieved 2013-03-29.
• Herbermann, Charles George; Pace, Edward Aloysius; Pallen, Condé Bénoist; Shahan, Thomas Joseph; Wynne, John Joseph; MacErlean, Andrew Alphonsus (1912). The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
• MacErlean, Andrew Alphonsus (1912). "Vicariate Apostolic of Southern Victoria Nyanza" . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15.
• "Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bukavu". GCatholic.org. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
• Minnaert, Stefaan (1 April 2008). "Premier voyage de Mgr. Hirth au Rwanda...". Histoire et Missions Chrétiennes N-005. Acculturation, syncrétisme, métissage, créolisation (Amérique, Océanie. XVIe-XIXe s.). KARTHALA Editions. ISBN 978-2-8111-4265-0. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
• Shorter, Aylward (2003). "Bishop Streicher, Henri 1863 to 1952". Dictionary of African Christian. Archived from the original on 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
• Shorter, Aylward (2011-12-01). Les Pères Blancs au temps de la conquête coloniale: Histoire des Missionnaires d'Afrique (1892–1914). KARTHALA Editions. ISBN 978-2-8111-0575-4. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
• Sundkler, Bengt G. M.; Steed, Christopher (2000). A History of the Church in Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 597. ISBN 978-0-521-58342-8. Retrieved 26 March 2013.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Southern Victoria Nyanza". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

The entry cites:

• Details of the missions in German Africa are in "Gott will es" (Maria-Gladbach), published by the "Afrikaverein deutscher katholiken".
• Le Roy in Piolet, Les missions catholiques Françaises au xix siècle, V (Paris, 1902), 458–66.

• Catholic Church in Africa
• White Fathers Apostolic Vicariates