Multa Praeclare

MULTA PRAECLARE. - Brief of Gregory XVI, of 24 April 1838, concerning the dioceses of the Portuguese Patronage in India. The expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese colonies in 1759 and the suppression of the Order in 1773 had a fatal outcome for Catholic missionary work in India. The Indo-Portuguese clergy, both secular and regular, no longer proved equal to its commitments. The conquering missionary spirit was almost extinguished. The moral situation of the native clergy was disturbing, the Christian communities neglected; the episcopal sees of the Patronage were vacant.

In Europe, with the rise of Romanticism, missionary thought received new and strong impulses, but in the territories of the Patronage this rebirth of missionary will was considerably constrained. The prefect of Propaganda, Carlo Maria Pedicini, on 7 February 1832 proposed to Portugal that it leave to the Holy See the care of providing for the sees of Cocino, Cranganore and Mylapore in the interest of souls. The king Michael of Portugal, then, on 27 March 1833 presented the Carmelite Giovanni dell'Ascensione as archbishop of Goa and the Augustinian Giuseppe dei Dolori as bishop of Cocino. Shortly afterwards civil war broke out in Portugal, after which the liberal Don Pedro rose to power. He took the most rigorous anti-religious measures, diplomatic relations with Rome were interrupted, all religious Orders in the metropolis and in the colonies were suppressed. Gregory XVI, formerly cardinal prefect of Propaganda, was of the opinion that the Holy See, given the missionary deficiency of Portugal, and in consideration of the totally changed circumstances, could, indeed should, claim for itself, independently of Portugal, the reorganization of the missions of India. In the interest of the care of souls it erected from 1832 to 1836, in the territory of the dioceses of the Patronage, the apostolic vicariates of Madras, Calcutta, Ceylon and Madura. This fact provoked bitter resistance, especially in Calcutta. The Portuguese government in 1836 nominated 3 bishops for Goa, Cranganore and Mylapore and sent them to India without pontifical confirmation. They protested in the most absolute terms against the missionary reorganization in India and forbade their clergy to recognize the apostolic vicars. Then Rome responded by publishing the brief M. p. By virtue of the supreme jurisdictional authority belonging to the Supreme Pontiff, the dioceses of the Patronage of Cocino, Cranganore, Mylapore and Malacca were not juridically suppressed, but by way of discipline were provisionally deprived of all jurisdiction and their territory was, likewise provisionally, subjected to the apostolic vicariates already resident. Moreover the archbishop of Goa was stripped of all rights over the aforesaid territories, this too provisionally. M. p. does not touch the rights of Patronage of the Portuguese crown outside the limits of the 4 dioceses listed. If on the one hand the brief M. p. constitutes the culminating phase of the so-called Goan schism, on the other it is the starting point and the basis of the revival of the missions in India.

Nicola Kowalsky