THE JOURNAL OF SIERRA LEONE STUDIES - JUNE 2013

Then, following the creation of the Vicariate of Sierra Leone in 1858,5 a group of three missionaries from the recently formed Society of African Missions, arrived in Freetown 2 The American Colonization Society (in full, The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Colour of America), founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the return of free African Americans to what was consid. [...] Phase 2 - Mission Revived The next phase of Catholic missionary activity in Sierra Leone commenced when, in 1863, the Holy Ghost congregation6 assumed responsibility for the mission at the request of the Office for the Propagation of the Faith, the Vatican body charged with overall responsibility for the Catholic Church’s missionary initiatives. [...] The Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1884 and towards the cost of which many of Freetown’s Protestants contributed, was solemnly inaugurated in 1887 in the presence of the colony’s dignitaries including the acting Governor and the consular representatives of France, Germany, Portugal and Spain. [...] Emphasising the demand for schools, he told of the large attendance of local chiefs at the opening of a mission chapel at Mogumbo in 1900, and of the enrolment of many children in the school alongside it. [...] Evaluation of the published estimates suggests that the number of IDPs was more than doubled the total number of refugees in the duration of the civil war.