Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

CONGREGATION OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY (MISSIONARIES OF SCHEUT). - Founded in 1862 by Fr. Theophilus 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 to it the steppes of Mongolia, the entire territory between Siberia and the Great Wall. The founder himself set out with the first expedition in 1865 and died at Lao-Hou-Kecu (Mongolia) on 22 February 1868.

The mission of Mongolia comprises (1949) 5 flourishing dioceses: Jehol, Suiyuan, Sivantze, Ningsia and Tatung. The works, the schools, the seminaries are progressing; each vicariate has 30-40 native priests, so much so that two independent missions have already been ceded to the native clergy: the apostolic vicariate of Tsinging and the apostolic prefecture of Chih-feng. The regional seminary of Tatangfu for the native clergy, erected in 1922, the first of its kind in China, has given in these 20 years more than 200 priests to those vicariates of Mongolia. In 1888 the C. was called to the evangelization of the independent State of the Congo, of which the apostolic vicariate was entrusted to it. It is divided today into about thirty flourishing ecclesiastical circumscriptions. The Missionaries of Scheut have there 4 apostolic vicariates: Léopoldville, Kasai, Lisala and Boma. Since 1908 they have been evangelizing the interior regions of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines (apostolic prefecture of Bagulo or of the Mountain Province), and since 1936 the apostolic prefecture of Makassar, on the island of Celebes (Dutch Indies). The C. currently numbers about 1400 religious.

Giuseppe Nevejan