CONGREGATION OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY (MISSIONARIES OF SCHEUT). – Founded in 1862 by Fr. Teofilo Verbist at Scheut, a suburb of Brussels, with the approval and support of Cardinal Sterckx of Malines and of the Belgian episcopate. The constitution, approved by the Holy See in 1900, establishes an exclusively missionary purpose, since the C. was instituted for the evangelization of China. The Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide entrusted it with the steppes of Mongolia, the entire territory between Siberia and the Great Wall. The founder himself departed with the first expedition in 1865 and died at Lao-Hou-Kecu (Mongolia) on 22 February 1868.
The mission of Mongolia comprises (1949) five flourishing dioceses: Jehol, Suiyuan, Sivantze, Ningsia, and Tatung. The works, schools, and seminaries are progressing; each vicariate has 30–40 indigenous priests, so much so that two independent missions have already been ceded to the indigenous clergy: the apostolic vicariate of Tsinging and the apostolic prefecture of Chih-feng. The regional seminary of Tatangfu for the indigenous clergy, established in 1922, the first of its kind in China, has supplied those vicariates of Mongolia with more than 200 priests over these 20 years. In 1888 the C. was called to evangelize the independent State of the Congo, whose apostolic vicariate was entrusted to II. It is now divided into about thirty flourishing ecclesiastical districts. The Missionaries of Scheut have four apostolic vicariates there: Léopoldville, Kasai, Lisala, and Boma. Since 1908 they have evangelized the inland regions of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines (apostolic prefecture of Bagulo or of the Mountainous Region), and since 1936 the apostolic prefecture of Makassar, on the island of Celebes (Dutch East Indies). The C. currently numbers approximately 1,400 religious.