Apostolic Prefecture of Marshall Islands
Insularum Marshallensium
Apostolic prefecture · Latin Church · Marshall Islands
Latin-rite apostolic prefecture covering the Republic of the Marshall Islands, erected on 23 April 1993 when Pope John Paul II split the former Diocese of Carolines-Marshalls. Its principal church is the Cathedral of the Assumption in Majuro.
The see
- Rank
- Apostolic prefecture
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 23 April 1993
- Latin
- Insularum Marshallensium
- Annuario code
- 001000485
The see in figures
- Catholics
- 5,123
- Population
- 59,000
- Catholic share
- 8.7%
- Priests
- 6
- Catholics per priest
- 854
- Extent
- 179 km²
- Catholics per km²
- 29
of the people living within its bounds
Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.
The bishop
- Apostolic Prefect
- Tamati Alefosio Sefo, M.S.C.
A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.
The cathedral
Cathedral of the Assumption, Majuro stands in Marshall Islands, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.
On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.
History
Catholic life in the Marshall Islands is organized as an apostolic prefecture, known in Latin as the Praefectura Apostolica Insularum Marshallensium, a Latin Church jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. It belongs as a suffragan to the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Agaña, whose see is on Guam, while remaining dependent on the Dicastery for Evangelization. Its seat, the Cathedral of the Assumption, stands in Majuro on Majuro Atoll, outside the United States, yet the prefecture's territory takes in Wake Island, an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States.
How to reach it
- Chancery
- Assumption, Uliga, P.O. Box 8, Majuro, MH 96960, Marshall Islands
- Telephone
- 625-8307
- [email protected]
This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].