Félix Erviti Barcelona (29 July 1910 – 24 November 2000) was a Spanish
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
priest, in the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary Congregation of Papal Right, religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a France, French priest born in Aix-en-Provence ...
. He was ordained as priest on February 19, 1933.
Religious life
He was appointed by
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
as the first
apostolic prefect
An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...
of
Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara ( es, Sahara Español; ar, الصحراء الإسبانية, As-Sahrā'a Al-Isbānīyah), officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958 then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used f ...
and
Ifni
Ifni was a Spanish province on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, south of Agadir and across from the Canary Islands. It had a total area of , and a population of 51,517 in 1964. The main industry was fishing. The present-day Moroccan province in th ...
on July 19, 1954. The Apostolic Prefecture of Spanish Sahara and Ifni was formed by ripping out and merging territories that had earlier been under the purview of the apostolic vicariates in Morocco and Algeria. He served as the apostolic prefect of
Western Sahara
Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the r ...
until May 2, 1994, when he was succeeded by
Acacio Valbuena Rodríguez
Fr. Acacio Valbuena Rodríguez (8 May 1922 – 4 May 2011) was the Roman Catholic Prefect for Western Sahara. He was ordained as priest in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate on 17 March 1945, and on July 10, 1994, John Paul II installed him in th ...
, although he remained as ''Prefect Emeritus'' of Western Sahara. He also served as a deputy member of the
Conferencia Episcopal Española's first triennium in the 1966–1969 period and as a member in the second triennium between 1969 and 1972.
Later life
He was involved in running a school and a hospital in
Laayoune
Laâyoune ( , also , ) or El Aaiún ( , ; Hassaniya Arabic: , romanized: ; ber, ⵍⵄⵢⵓⵏ, Leɛyun; ar, label= Literary Arabic, العيون, al-ʿUyūn/el-ʿUyūn, lit=The Springs) is the largest city of the disputed territory of W ...
. After the 1975 occupation of Western Sahara by
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
, the Catholic population of the prefecture went down from 22515 to 368, and the prefecture was renamed as the Prefecture of Western Sahara with just two parishes and three religious people. Erviti then spent 19 years working towards the betterment of the refugees in the
Sahrawi refugee camps
The Sahrawi refugee camps (also romanized with Saharawi) in Tindouf, Algeria, are a collection of refugee camps set up in the Tindouf Province, Algeria in 1975–76 for Sahrawi refugees fleeing from Moroccan forces, who advanced through Wester ...
while cooperating with the
(MINURSO).
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
accepted his resignation in 1994 due to reasons of old age, and he retired to the provincial house of his order in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. He died while celebrating mass at the Parroquia Virgen Peregrina de Fátima, in Madrid.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erviti, Felix
1910 births
2000 deaths
20th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests
Catholic Church in Western Sahara
Spanish expatriates in Western Sahara
People from Laayoune
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate