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Congo
Population: 2,665,000 Life expectancy male/female: 44/48 years Infant mortality rate: 11‰	Religions: Catholics 53.9%; Protestants 24.4%; Animists 19%; some Muslims and other. Independence: 15 August 1960 (from France) GDP per capita: US$ 710 (1995)

Spiritan presence: since 1880; 39 professed members (35 priests, 1 brother, 3 scholastics).

Half of the two million inhabitants live in the two towns of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. Oil has become the largest part of the national wealth. The various political currents correspond mainly to regional or ethnic loyalties, so political life is very unstable. Tensions between the different factions have resulted in bloody confrontations from 1993 up to the recent war (June to October, 1997).

The Church is more than 100 years old and is made up of lively Christian communities in different milieu. There are many vocations to the secular clergy and religious life. But the Church has also suffered at times from the political and ethnic tensions and divisions.
Numerically, there has been no change in the Spiritan District since 1992: there are around 40 members, French and other Europeans being in the majority. There are ten African confreres from FAC, Nigeria, East Africa and Angola.

Various projects have been started, above all in Brazzaville and Dolisie, to help young people who are in prison or who have been released, offering them a professional agricultural or technical training. They also support young people who are trying to start a business. Some of these schemes were the result of collaboration with others (e.g. Auteuil-International and the Brothers of St. Gabriel).

The areas given priority in the District are the more remote rural zones, like the immense territory of first evangelisation in the Likouala region in the North, and large rural parishes in each of the dioceses of Nkaï, Kinkala and Owando. Another priority is the urban ministry in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, with particular attention to young people in trouble.

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