FIDES INTERNATIONAL AGENCY. – A missionary information organ, established by the General Superior Council of the Pontifical Work of 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, evaluate it, and communicate it to the press, especially the Catholic press.
Therefore, a dense network of local correspondents was immediately organized in all parts of the world, designated by bishops, vicars, and apostolic prefects in each of their territories of jurisdiction; and in Rome a central editorial office was created, which carefully 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 broader articles on affairs that are either national or particular to several missionary territories taken together.
The Agency now has two publications: one, a weekly Information bulletin, begun in January 1928; and the other, without a fixed periodicity, Documentation, comprising longer articles of 6-8 pages, in the original language of the writers who send them: Italian, French, English, Spanish, German. The Documentation series began in April 1947.
The Agency also maintains 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 intensively on the Guida delle Missioni Cattoliche, Rome 1935.