Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/471

VICTORIA

Archdiocese of Orogon City. Right Rev. Bertram Orth succeeded in 1899, and in 1903 was raised to the dignity of archbishop of the newly established ecclesiastical province of British Columbia. Owing to failing health, he resigned in 1908, and in 1909 Right Rev. Alexander Mac Donald, of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, was consecrated in Rome luuler the title of Bishop of Victoria. Bishop JMacDonald is well-known as a writer on religious subjects and questions of the day.

The Indian missions both on the east and on the west coast of the island were established by the secular clerg}' of the diocese, and were, until recently, under their sole direction. In 1900, the Benedictine Fathers of Mount Ange!, Oregon, and in 1903, the Fathers of the Company of Alary, came to take a share in the work of the diocese. There are 2,500 Catholic Indians, and the total Catholic population is 10,000. There are 8 schools, 1 college, 5 convents, 24 churches, 13 missions, 19 priests, and 40 stations. A. J. Brabant.

Victoria Nyanza, .—The Mission of Victoria Nyanza, founded in 1878 by the White Fathers of Cardinal Lavigerie, was erected into a vicariate Apostolic 31 May, 1883, with Mgr. Livinhac as the first vicar Apostolic. When the latter was raised to the superior-generalship of the Society of White leathers (October, 1889), the Holy See appointed Mgr. Hirth as his successor. A Decree of 6 July, 1894, divided Victoria Nyanza into three autonomous missions: that of Southern Nyanza in the German Protectorate, of which Mgr. Hirth retained the government and became the first titular; those of the Upper Nile and Northern Nyanza, in English territory, the former given to the Fathers of Mill Hill and the second to the White Fathers. From the IS provinces of Uganda the Decree of 1894 detached that of Kyaggive and Kampala Mengo, which it placed under the jurisdiction of the Fathers of Mill Hill, and gave to Northern Nyanza the remaining 17 provinces of the Kingdom of Uganda, the three Kingdoms of Unyoro, Toro, and Ankole, and in the Belgian Congo an isosceles triangle whose top w;i.s the northern point of Lake Albert Nyanza and whose base followed the 30th degree of longitude. Three races share the portion of Northern Nyanza lying in the English protectorate; the first, that of the Baganda, is represented by 670,000 inhabitants, and has given the strongest support to evangelization, and in 1886 had the courage and the honour to give to the Church its first negro martjTs. The second race, the Banyoro, is represented by 520,000 aborig- ines; the third, the Bahima (Hamites), the leading class in the shepherd Kingdom of Ankole, is in a minority not exceeding .50.000 souls. The total population of Northern Nyanza equals therefore about 1,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,400,000 are in English territory, and 360,000 in the Congo country.

At the time of its creation (July, 1894) Northern Nyanza had an administrator, 17 missionaries divided among 5 stations, 15,000 neophytes and 21,000 catechumens. In July, 1896, the date of the death of Mgr. Guillerman, the first vicar Apostolic, the vicariate had 6 stations, 21 missionaries, and 20,000 baptized Christians. In July. 1911, it had 1 bishop, Mgr. Henri Streieher (preeonized 2 P"eb., 1897), Bishop of Tabarca and second vicar Apostolic of Southern Nyanza, 118 missionaries divided among 28 stations," 113,810 neophytes and 97,6.30 cate- chumens. All the missionaries of Northern Nyanza, including the vicar Apostolic, are members of the Society of White Fathers founded by Cardinal Lavigerie. As yet the native clergy consists only of 2 subdeacons, 4 minor clerics, and 4 tonsured clerics. They are assisted by 28 European religious of the Society of White Sisters, and by an institute of native

religious called the Daughters of Mary. Eleven hundred and five Baiganda and Banyoro teachers co-operate in the educational work and in the service of 832 chinches or chapels. The Vicariate of Northern Nyanza h;is 894 scholastic establishments, viz. a lower seminary with 80 students, and upper seminary with 16 students in philosophy and theology, a high school with 45 pupils, most of them the sons of chiefs, a normal school with 62 boarders, and 890 primary schools in which free instruction is given to 19,1.57 pupils, of whom 11,244 are boys and 7913 girls. The annual report of the vicar Apostolic from June, 1910, to June, 1911, shows 7930 confirmations, 1154 marriages, 578,657 confessions heard, 1,236,126 communions administered, and the gratuitous distribution of 394,495 remedies. The headquarters of the mission is at Villa Maria, near Masaka, l^ganda. There are situated the residence of the bishop, the two semi- naries, a flourishing mis.sion station, the central hou.se of the White Sisters, the novitiate of the native sisters, and a printing establishment where there is published monthly in the Ruganda language an interesting 16-page magazine entitled "Munno", which has 2000 native subscribers. Entebbe is the seat of the procurator of the vicariate.

Henry Streicher.

Victoria Nyanza, Vicariate Apostolic of Southern, erected from the mission of Nyanza, 13 June, 1894, hes north of the Vicariate of Unyanyembe, and comprises the land surrounding the southern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza from Lake Kivu in the west to LakeNatronintheea.st,onthe Anglo-German frontier (36° E). The mission thus including the northern portion of German East Africa is entrusted to the White Fathers, who first settled in the district in 1883, when expelled from Uganda (see ). They were weU received by the Wasukuma and the Unyamwezi, but these peoples being engaged chiefly as porters for caravans, have all the vices natural to a roving life and but little inclination for religion; progress among them has been slow, but the fruit is permanent. About 1896 a mission was established on the island of Ukerewe, as a result of numerous conversions made there for some years previous by a native who had been baptized in 1889 at the first mission headquarters Notre-Dame de Kamoga and had returned to spread the light among his fellow-islanders. As polygamy and divorce are practically unknown in Ukerewe good progress has been made. In 1900 the Mission of the Sacred Heart, Isavi, near Lake Kivu, in Ruanda was established among the Bahutus, a simple laborious race, rarely indulging in polygamy. The Catholic natives of the vicariate are a source of great consolation to the missionaries, they recite the rosary daily, very many attend daily Mass, and most of them approach the sacraments weekly; they have a strong filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin and some, espe- I'ially those of Baganda race, give proof of a very high degree of virtue and a wonderful delicacy of sentiment.

Statistics:—Mgr. John Joseph Hirth, titular Bishop of Teveste, born at Niederspechbach, near Altkirch, 26 March, 1854, appointed vicar Apostolic, 13 July, 1894, resides at Rubia; there is also a co.adjutor vicar, Mgr. Joseph Sweens, titular Bishop of Capsa, born at Bois-le-duc, Holland, 22 May, 1855; ordained 1882; joined the White Fathers, 1889; was appointed director of the lay-brothers at Maison-Carree, Algiers, in 1891, and later superior at Marienthal; in 1901 he went to Africa and established the mission of ALarien- heini; in 1909 he was named visitor of his congrega- tion, was nominated coadjutor to Mgr. Hirth, 1 Jan., 1910, and consecrated at Bois-le-<iuc. The vicariate contains about 2,.50O,0(X) pagans, 7000 Catholics, 12,000 catechumens, 30 White F'athers; 23 lay broth- ers; 6 Missionary Sisters of Notrc-Dame-d'Afrique;