GUINEA-BISSAU, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN

Formerly known as Portuguese Guinea, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau is located in west Africa, and is bound by the Atlantic Ocean on the southwest and west, by Senegal on the north, and by Guinea on the east and southeast. With its marshy terrain rising to only 800 feet above sea level in the southeast, Guinea-Bissau's agricultural products include cashews and peanuts, rice, palm oil, timber, fishing, and beeswax, while natural resources consist mainly of phosphates, bauxite, and yet-unexploited deposits of petroleum. The region's tropical climate is punctuated by a long dry season in winter that is characterized by harmattan winds.

In 1951 Guinea-Bissau was made an overseas territory of Portugal. Gaining its independence in 1973, the country held its first multiparty elections in 1994, beginning more than a decade of government instability. Reliant for much of its wealth upon agriculture, the region has been increasingly threatened by overgrazing, deforestation and the desertification caused by the encroachment of the Sahara. By 2000 it was one of the 20 poorest nations on earth. Most of the country's Muslims resided in the interior and the life expectancy of an average citizen of Guinea Bissau was 49 years in 2000.

History. After its discovery by the Portuguese in 1446 Guinea-Bissau became a Portuguese colony. Beginning in 1462 the Franciscans were entrusted with evangelization of the region, which depended ecclesiastically

on the bishop of the cape verde islands. Zealous slave traders who made no distinction between pagan and Christian Africans seriously hampered missionary activity, which was confined to the coastal area. In 1694 Cape Verdean Bishop Vitoriano do Porto became the first bishop to visit the area. Missionary activity remained sporadic until 1866 when a few Portuguese secular priests arrived in an attempt to revive the missions. British claims to the area were withdrawn in 1870, and Guinea-Bissau's boundaries were formalized by 1905.

As late as 1929 there was only one priest in the country. Restoration of the mission began in 1933 when French Franciscans established a mission. Priests from the Milan Foreign Missions Seminary arrived in 1947. After the Portuguese concordat with the Holy See in 1940 the situation improved greatly. The Prefecture Apostolic of Portuguese Guinea, with its seat in Bissau, the capital, was created in 1955 and placed under the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs; it was created a diocese in 1977. Pope John Paul II visited the country in 1990.

During the 1950s a nationalist movement took shape in the region and armed resistance against the Portuguese colonial government began in 1962. The country gained its independence 11 years later, on Sept. 24, 1973, and a new constitution was put into effect in May of 1984. Four years after a new government was put in place during the elections of 1994, a military uprising against the new leaders triggered civil war, despite the efforts of Bissau Bishop Settimio Ferrazzetta to avert the coup. Further violence erupted in June of 1998 when the country was invaded by Senegalese troops. A military junta wrested control in 1999, and appointed a transition government, which ruled until February of the following spring, when Koumba Yalla was elected president. Further efforts to unseat the government were diffused through the efforts of other Church leaders, although nationalist sentiments continued to simmer among members of certain ethnic groups. The country's constitution reflected its political history: modified several times after its initial adoption, it nonetheless continued to provide for freedom of religion and imposed no state church.

During almost a decade of civil war, the Church worked to provide humanitarian aid for the region's growing refugee population. By 2000 there were 29 parishes, 11 secular and 54 religious priests, 15 brothers and 132 sisters at work among Guinea-Bissau's people. Catholic-run schools included 23 primary and four secondary schools. Faced with an economy devastated by a brutal civil war, Guinea-Bissau drew the attention of Pope John Paul II in the late 1990s. In addition to repeated calls for peace and a plea in 1998 to end "the immense displacement of population," the pope asked that nations take steps to put a halt to the trafficking of arms to the region.

Bibliography: r.a. labban Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (Metuchen, NJ 1996). r. pattee, Portugal na Africa contemporânea (Coimbra 1959). r. wiltgen, Gold Coast Mission History (Techny, IL 1956). Bilan du Monde, 2:429–430. Annuario Pontificio has data on all diocese. For additional bibliography see africa.

[r. pattee/eds.]