As a number of the first American colonists were Catholics from Maryland and the adjoining states, they eventually caught the attention of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the second Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1833 undertook to meet the difficulty of sending missionaries to serve the local faithful.
After a time, finding that he did not receive missionaries enough to accomplish anything practical, Father Barron returned to the United States, and thence went to Rome where he was made on 22 January 1842, Vicar Apostolic of the Two Guineas, and titular Bishop of Constantia.
Bishop Barron and Father Kelly held out for two years, and then, wasted by fever, they determined to return to the United States, feeling that it was impossible to withstand the climate any longer.
The President of the Republic, Mr. Johnson, and the people generally gave them a cordial welcome, because of its emphasis on providing a thorough education, but the sectarian ministers organized a cabal against them, and endeavoured to thwart all their efforts to spread the Catholic faith.
After this it was visited occasionally by missionaries from Sierra Leone until 1906, when the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples handed its care over to the Society of African Missions from Lyon, and three Irish priests, Fathers Stephen Kyne, Joseph Butler, and Dennis O'Sullivan, with two French assistants, continued to work among the 2800 Catholics the vicariate was estimated to contain in 1910.
[3] Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Liberia were established in 1927, celebrated by a spectacular and massive march through the streets of Monrovia on the feast of Christ the King, which subsequently boosted registration in Catholic schools and a lasting foundation of Catholicism.
[4] Under the dictatorships of William Tubman up to Samuel Doe, the Catholic Church continued its work in education and with the poor, as well as using its voice to denounce abuses and corruption under the different dictatorial regimes.
Violence destroys the very fabric of society, foments hatred and brings about hostility where there should be love"[6]During the 1989–1997 Liberian Civil War, many churches and religious centres were used as shelters.