Apostolic vicariate
The whole of Oceania had at first been entrusted by the Roman Congregation for the missions, Propaganda Fide, to the Society of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (1825); but the territory proving too large, the western portion was afterwards formed into an Apostolic vicariate and given to the Society of Mary (1836), Jean Baptiste Pompallier being appointed first ordinary of the Apostolic Vicariate of Western Oceania.