OPERE PONTIFICIE MISSIONARIE — Two pages from a notebook of Fr. Chaumont, with the names of the members of the first two “tens” of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith, reconstituted in 1825.
attention to the associates’ profession, and seeks, through its activity, to evoke the characteristic spirit of mission according to the Christian conception of life. It is organized into groups established in the provincial and municipal centers, and its offices are elective.
It publishes Apostolato della culla, a bimonthly journal. It is based in Rome.
III. — For the Works dependent on the Catholic Action Women’s Youth, V. GIOVENTÙ FEMMINILE DI A. C.
#### OPERE PONTIFICIE MISSIONARIE. -
I. LEGAL NATURE
The P. O. M. are pious associations (v.) of the faithful whose purpose is to assist the missions through prayer and offerings, and whose members, in accordance with the statutes, must be duly enrolled and fulfill the conditions established in order to enjoy the rights and indults granted (cf. cann. 684–99). For the P. O. for the Propagation of the Faith, material enrollment in the registers of the work is not required (AAS, 28 [1932], p. 326; 20 [1928], p. 109), while children are ordinarily enrolled in the P. O. of the Holy Childhood up to the age of twelve (cf. can. 693 § 3).At present they are: the P. O. for the Propagation of the Faith, the P. O. of St. Peter the Apostle for the Indigenous Clergy, and the P. O. of the Holy Childhood. To these may be added the P. Association of Catholic Women and Girls for the Missions. The Missionary Union of the Clergy, although not pontifical, is, by virtue of its purpose, intimately linked with the first three works indicated.
1. Coordination. – a) Central. – The P. O. of the Holy Childhood has its central headquarters in Paris, and its general administration is not coordinated with the other P. O. M. The P. O. for the Propagation of the Faith, since 1922 (Pius XI, motu proprio Romanorum Pontificum, 3 May 1922, AAS, 14 [1922], pp. 322–30), and the P. O. of St. Peter the Apostle for the Indigenous Clergy, since 1929 (Pius XI, motu proprio Ver ad summi, 24 June 1929, AAS, 21 [1929], pp. 345–349), instead have their central headquarters in Rome at the S. Congreg. de Propaganda Fide. Their coordination was immediately regulated by the motu proprio Decessor noster, 24 June 1929 (AAS, 21 [1929], pp. 342–45). Following the establishment of the International Secretariat of the Union