RELIGIOUS MISSIONARY CONGREGATIONS, MALE AND FEMALE. - In the conversion of the peoples of northern Europe the Benedictine monks played a very important part, while from the 12th century the Dominicans and Franciscans labored zealously in Africa and Asia, stirring up the missionary movement, which after the great geographical discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries had a greater development.
At the beginnings of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, in the mission territories, which included not only Asia, Africa and America but a great part of Europe, not excluding some zones of France and Italy infested by heresy, the following religious institutes exercised the apostolate, of which the list is found in vol. XIV of the Atti della S. Congregazione di Propaganda Fide, ff. 231-34, where the reform of the faculties granted to missionaries is discussed: the Benedictines in India and England; the Cistercians in Ireland; the Dominicans in Europe, Asia, Africa and America (that is, in the East and West Indies); the families of the Franciscans or of the Observant Friars Minor in the same regions; the Jesuits in the same regions; the Augustinians in Asia and in the East and West Indies; the Reformed of St. Francis in Europe and Asia; the Conventual Friars Minor in Europe only; the Minims in England and Scotland; the Capuchins in Europe, Asia and Africa; the Theatines in Asia, Europe and the East and West Indies; the Mercedarians in the West Indies; the Piarists in Germany only; the Hermits of St. Paul in Europe only; the Calced Carmelites in Europe; the Discalced Carmelites in Asia and the East Indies.
The list, which comprises sixteen religious institutes, enumerates Orders and religious congregations erected not long before 1622, in which year the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide was instituted. None of those religious institutes had been founded exclusively or predominantly for the missions. Even the Jesuits, who immediately sent St. Francis Xavier and others on mission, did not have the propagation of the faith as their sole purpose. Therefore before Propaganda one cannot speak of true and proper missionary religious congregations, which had as their exclusive purpose the propagation of the faith among unbelievers. This new requirement came to be determined after the institution of Propaganda, which immediately understood the necessity of having all missionary personnel under its direct dependence and at its complete disposal. This work of reorganization was opposed by the two colonizing powers, Spain and Portugal, which put forward the rights of patronage granted in other times by the popes. There followed a struggle in which the missionaries also took part, all of whom belonged to religious congregations. Thus the idea gradually matured of having personnel entirely independent of alleged rights of patronage and dedicated exclusively to missionary work. For evident reasons the idea could be put into practice neither in Portugal nor in Spain, but it was realized in France, where in 1650 the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Paris was begun, which gathered priests from the French dioceses to send them into the missions entrusted by Propaganda to the French Ordinaries in eastern Asia. It was not a religious congregation instituted with distinctive characteristics, but an initiative to overcome the difficult situation in which especially the missions of eastern Asia found themselves. The example of the Seminary of Paris was not followed by others, also because the historical vicissitudes through which the missions passed in the 18th century did not make felt the necessity of sending an ever greater number of missionaries to them.
On the other hand, during the revival of missionary activity, begun with the pontificate of Gregory XVI in the last century, there arose numerous religious congregations and other seminaries of the type of those of Paris with an exclusively missionary purpose and dependent on the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. Of these religious institutes the great majority arose in the mission territories themselves through the work of bishops and pious souls, and the others in Europe. In this way there came to be two categories of missionary religious congregations, of which the first comprised the congregations that had been born in mission lands to collaborate directly in the works of the apostolate; the second embraced the others, which, although erected in Europe, had the purpose of sending their own members only into mission territories, to the exclusion of other ends. These congregations can properly be called missionary, unlike the others, in which the missionary apostolate is one part of the many activities of good which they carry out in the universal Church. Before long they became very numerous, and not a few are still today in full development.
The Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, in regulating the internal organization of the aforesaid congregations, had no need of special authorizations but made use of its ordinary faculties, all the more so since the other religious missionaries also depended entirely on it. By means of the constitution Sapienti consilio of 1908, not only were great territories withdrawn from its jurisdiction, but it was also deprived of competence over missionaries as religious, and therefore all the congregations passed as a block under the new Sacred Congregation of Religious. But after the space of a year several institutes were again placed under the jurisdiction of Propaganda, once more consecrating the principle that these institutes, having specifically missionary purposes, should depend entirely on Propaganda. This principle prevailed also after the Code, which in can. 252 § 5 literally repeats the provisions of the constitution of 1908. In this way even today the situation prior to the aforesaid constitution has again been determined, namely that the congregations born in mission territories to help the local apostolate depend on Propaganda, and likewise the congregations or societies that are erected elsewhere with a specifically missionary purpose. It is observed, however, that the first criterion has not always been applied in all cases, especially for countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
At present a great number of religious institutes of diocesan right, founded almost all in mission territories, depend on Propaganda. Some have been founded in dioceses of common right, namely: the Little Servants of the Sacred Heart (diocese of Nice, pontifical audience 24 Apr. 1933); the Sisters of Foreign Missions (diocese of Toulouse, pontifical audience 8 May 1933); the Dominican Missionaries of Namur (diocese of Namur, decr. 21 Nov. 1937); the Medical Missionaries of Mary (diocese of Armagh, decr. 21 May 1940); the Medical Mission Sisters (Philadelphia, U. S. A., Letter of the Secretariat of State, 30 Dec. 1941).
Various congregations of pontifical right also still depend on Propaganda. The male congregations (1949) are 7, the female 20.
Besides the aforesaid religious congregations, other missionary institutes also depend on Propaganda, which although having particular constitutions are societies without vows and at present (1949) number 13. In the missions, besides the religious congregations and societies without vows that are specifically missionary, more than eighty male congregations and more than two hundred female congregations labor, some of which have a numerous host of missionaries. - See plate XV.
