FIDES INTERNATIONAL AGENCY. - A missionary information organ, established by the Superior General Council of the Pontifical Work for the Propagation of the Faith at its annual assembly in 1927 and approved by Pius XI in the audience granted on 9 May of the same year to the Secretary of the Congregation. Its purpose is to gather news from all Catholic missions, sift it, and communicate it to the press, especially the Catholic press.
Accordingly, a dense network of local correspondents was immediately organized in all parts of the world, appointed by the bishops, vicars and apostolic prefects in each of the territories of their jurisdiction; and in the center of Rome an editorial office was created, which diligently processes the material received and transmits it weekly in the principal languages to the world press. In addition to local correspondents, there are also regional correspondents, who provide more wide-ranging articles on national or particular matters concerning several missionary territories taken as a whole.
The A. now has two publications: one weekly of Informazioni, begun in January 1928; and the other, without fixed periodicity, of Documentazioni, comprising broader articles of 6-8 pages, written in the original language of the writers who send them: Italian, French, English, Spanish, German. The "Documentazioni" began in April 1947.
The A. also has a special photography service, under the name Fides Foto. It also devoted its 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 intensively on the Guida delle Missioni Cattoliche, Rome 1935.
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