This mission (Missio Kwangensis) formed a part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Belgian Congo till April, 1892, when a papal decree was issued, entrusting this new mission to the Jesuit Fathers of the order's Belgian province.
He left Belgium on 6 March 1893 with two priests, one scholastic, and two lay brothers, and reached the mission towards the end of May.
The prefecture comprised the civil districts of Eastern Kwango and that of Stanley Pool as far to the north as the River Kassai.
The sisters of Notre Dame de Namur had educational institutions for girls at Kisantu and Lemfu.
Jesuit father Julian Banckaert was born at Bruges (Belgium) in 1847, entered the diocesan seminary, and was ordained in 1871.