Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of Southern Arabia - History

History

Originally part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Gallas, the Vicariate Apostolic of Arabia was formed as a prefecture by Pope Pius IX on 21 January, 1875. It was made into a vicariate Apostolic on 25 April, 1888, by Pope Leo XIII as the Vicariate Apostolic of Aden, located in Yemen. On the 28 June, 1889 the name was changed to the Vicariate Apostolic of Arabia responsible for the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding region: Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Somalia and Yemen, an area of over 1,200,000 square miles (3,100,000 km2). There are Catholic parishes in all these countries with the exception of Saudi Arabia and Somalia, where the public practice of non-Islamic religions is forbidden.

On 29 June, 1953, the Prefecture Apostolic of Kuwait (now known as the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Arabia) was separated from the Vicariate Apostolic of Arabia, and a subsequent redrawing of boundaries in 2011 reduced its jurisdiction to the countries of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The vicariate was governed by the Capuchin friars, though Franciscan sisters have also been involved, especially in the beginning.

Read more about this topic:  Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic Of Southern Arabia

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?
    David Hume (1711–1776)

    Indeed, the Englishman’s history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)