AGENZIA INTERNAZIONALE FIDES. — An organ of missionary information, established by the General Superior Council of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith at its annual assembly in 1927 and approved by Pius XI at the audience granted on 9 May of that same year to the Secretary of the Congregation. Its purpose is to gather news from all the Catholic missions, evaluate it, and communicate it to the press, especially the Catholic press.
For this reason, a dense network of local correspondents was immediately organized throughout the world, appointed by the bishops, vicars, and apostolic prefects in each of the territories under their jurisdiction; and a editorial office was established in Rome, which diligently processes the material received and transmits it weekly in the principal languages to the world press. In addition to the local correspondents, there are also regional correspondents, who provide more wide-ranging articles on national or particular affairs concerning several missionary territories considered as a whole.
The A. now has two publications: one, a weekly Informazioni, begun in January 1928; and the other, issued without a fixed periodicity, Documentazioni, comprising longer articles of 6–8 pages, written in the original language of the authors who submit them: Italian, French, English, Spanish, and German. The Documentazioni began in April 1947.
The A. also operates a special photographic service, under the name Fides Foto. It has also devoted attention to more important publications: *Testo-atlante
illustrato delle Missioni, Novara 1932; Le Missioni Cattoliche dipendenti dalla S. Congregazione de Prop. Fide, Rome 1946, and collaborated extensively on the Guida delle Missioni Cattoliche*, Rome 1935. Celestino Testore