MISSIONS CATHOLIQUES, LES. – Monthly illustrated missionary journal, published since 1868 by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, in Lyons. Initially weekly, it was published twice monthly from 1928 to 1942, and monthly thereafter.
It reports on Catholic missionary activity and contains, above all, original accounts by missionaries, including accounts of an ethnographic and religious-scientific nature. It was translated into several languages, although the various editions increasingly retained their independence, especially through articles on the work of missionaries from their own countries. The Italian edition, Le missioni cattoliche, published from 1871 in Milan by the Institute of Foreign Missions of Milan, reports principally, in lengthy accounts, on the missionary activity of the Institute. Other editions are: the German, from 1873 (Die katholischen Missionen); the Dutch, from 1874 (De Katholieke Missiën); the Polish, from 1881 (Missye Katolickie); the Hungarian, from 1881 (A Kath. Hitlerjesztés Lapini, from 1925 under the title: Katholikus Missziók); the English, from 1885 (Illustrated catholic missions); the Spanish, from 1892 (Las misiones católicas); and the United States English edition, from 1906 (Catholic missions). These editions became completely independent of the French edition, particularly from the First World War onward. Subsequently, new journals appeared under the same title: a Slovenian one in 1923 (Katolicki Misijoni), a Slovak one in 1928 (Katolicki Misie), a Lithuanian one in 1931 (Misijos), an English one for Ireland in 1934 (Catholic missions), and another for New Zealand in 1938 (Catholic missions).