Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Notes on the Apostolic Prefecture of Batavia, 1826

From 1600 and during the two following centuries the position of the mission in what is today Indonesia, was rather vague.

There is an opinion that with the erection of the Prefecture Apostolic of Batavia in 1826, the Duch East Indies were detached from the "Dutch Mission" to which they "apparently belonged" (cf. "Emigranten voor God", Steul-Tegelen, 1949, p. 61).

It is more likely that the Dutch possessions ecclesially formed part of the immense Apostolic Prefecture of Bourbon (also called: "of the South Sea"): ("Pour les possessions hollandaises fur érigé le préfecture de Batavia, séparé alors de l'immense préfecture des îles de la Mer du Sur dont le centre était à l'île Bourbon" [Nouvel Atlas des Missions, Abbé J. Despont, 1951, p. 32]).

The year of erection of the Apostolic Prefecture is considered to be 1826, when Msgr. Lambert Prinsen received full ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Dutch colony.

(Source: Huiskamp 1994, p. 125)

- CT