IN THE MISSIONS. — Also in the renewal of missionary apostolate, prescriptions concerning the neophytes were numerous.
In 1213 Riccardo, prior of Bermondsey, founded a Hospital of Converts in honor of St. Tommaso of Canterbury for Jewish neophytes; and the Dominicans did the same at Oxford. Under Enrico III (1216–72), a domus conversorum was opened in London for catechumens and Jewish neophytes. The Council of Basel (1431; sess. XIX, decree 6 [Mansi, XXIX, pp. 99 ff.]) established a particular method of ministry among neophytes, and Paolo III, with the bull Cupientes Judaeos (§§ 5–8; 21 March 1542), sanctioned the conciliar decrees. Subsequently, with the bull Ilius qui (19 February 1543), through the initiative of St. Ignazio, who, probably visiting London in 1530, had come to know the domus conversorum, the «House of the Neophytes» of S. Giovanni di Mercato was erected in Rome; with another bull, In hoc praecelso fastigio (20 May 1580), Gregorio XIII erected the one near the church of the Madonna dei Monti, which still exists. Through the efforts of St. Ignazio, various houses for catechumens were also established in the territories of the Portuguese missions.
At the time of the conquest of the New World, mass conversions did not permit adequate preparation for Baptism, and therefore the Councils prescribed instruction after it, at the point where today the first step toward the catechumenate begins. The First Council of Mexico, in 1555, established that the neophytes, after Baptism, were to learn the «four prayers», namely: Pater, Ave, Credo, Salve Regina (Conc. Mess., can. 1). The same prescription was repeated by the Council of Quito (1570; sess. III, p. 1; IV, chap. 3). The Council of Lima, in 1567, decreed that instruction after Baptism should serve as preparation for receiving the other Sacraments. In 1585, the Third Council of Mexico established that simple sermons drawn from Sacred Scripture should frequently be given to the neophytes (lib. I, tit. I, De praedicatione Verbi Dei, 3–4). In Spanish America, at first, the neophytes were excluded from Communion. It seems that the first «Junta» of Mexico, in 1524, decreed that Communion was to be denied to neophytes even as Viaticum (F. A. Lorenzana, Los Concilios Mexicanos, Mexico 1769, p. 4); but the original text has not yet been found. Paolo III, however, with the bull Veritas ipso (2 June 1537), established as a fundamental principle that the Indians were true human beings endowed with human reason; the second «Junta» of Mexico (1539; can. 22) permitted the administration of the Eucharist to the Indians, provided that they were sufficiently prepared; the First Council of Mexico declared that this could be done, but without obligation; and the First Council of Lima, in 1567, mitigating this decree, permitted Communion and Viaticum to be given to all Indians at Easter (chap. 58, 59). José de Acosta deserves credit for having advocated in his time the administration of the Sacraments as an introduction to Christian life from the practical missionary point of view. In the East Indies, too, many neophytes were excluded from Communion, but Alessandro VII, with the brief Sacrosancti Apostolatus officii (18 January 1658), severely condemned the abuse (Collectanea S. Congr. de Prop. Fide, I, no. 129).
Indeed, as early as 1645 and 1656, Propaganda had replied to the missionaries of China, declaring the obligation of neophytes to observe the positive law concerning the reception of the Sacraments, the Sunday precept, and fasting (Collectanea, I, nos. 114, 126). Valuable provisions for the care of neophytes were also issued subsequently (cf., for example: Collect., II, no. 1346, 31–33). Special mention should be made of the method of the White Fathers, who retain neophytes for a further three months after Baptism in order to introduce them systematically into Christian life.