The Catholic Church on the island of Angaur (Palau)
In Angaur (Ngeaur), a small island state of Palau of just 8 km ² and just over a hundred inhabitants, a Catholic church was held in 1944- 1945, in the post-war of the Battle of Angaur. It belongs to the Catholic Vicariate of Palau, within the diocese of the Carolines Islands, in the ecclesiastical province of Agaña (Guam).
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- The temple was built in 1944- 1945 by the Seabees, the construction battalions of the United States Navy, after the battle that ravaged the island in 1944; a photograph of December 1949 (Margo Duggan collection, University of Hawaii) expressly commends its beautiful interior.
- The church is in the Catholic directory of Palau as the church of Angaur, about 63 kilometres south-west of Koror, within the Vicariate of Palau of the Diocese of the Carolines.
- The Catholic faith came to Palau with the Spanish Capuchin missionaries, who began the permanent presence on April 28, 1891; today around 45% of the population of Palau is Catholic (2015 estimate).
- Angaur, marked by phosphate mining (1909-1954) under the German, Japanese and American administrations, had 119 inhabitants in the 2015 census: a very small community that retains its temple in the middle of the Pacific.
Catholic Church of Angaur
On a tiny Pacific island, wounded by war and almost depopulated, a church born from the ruins of 1944 remains. The Catholic community of Angaur, together with the Vicariate of Palau, recalls that no corner of the world is too small for the presence of the Lord and the protection of his Mother.
- Santa Maria, Estrella del Mar, keeps the faithful of the smaller islands of the ocean.
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