MISSIONARY STATUTES. — Since many missionary districts are entrusted to religious orders, numerous relationships arise between the institutes to which the missionaries belong and the missions themselves.
Many reports and instructions of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide have dealt with this complex matter since its inception, and since the last century an attempt has been made to regulate the relations of certain Orders or religious congregations through the Missionary Statutes (Statuti Missionari, S. m.), which are a collection of norms determining the rights and duties of the ecclesiastical superiors of the missions and the generals of the respective Orders or religious congregations. If they pertain to a particular mission, they are called special; if they regulate relations with all the missions entrusted to an Order or religious congregation, they are called general. At present, the following general Missionary Statutes are in force for the missions entrusted to the Capuchins, Dominicans, Discalced Carmelites, Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Society of the Divine Saviour, Society of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Order of Friars Minor, Society of the Divine Word, Congregation of the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill, Belgian Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, Congregation of the Passionist Fathers, Pious Society of St. Francis Xavier, Congregation of the Holy Cross, Institute of the Consolata Missions, Order of the Holy Cross, Servants of Mary.
The most recent Statutes have a more uniform arrangement of the matter treated, which generally includes questions concerning ecclesiastical and religious superiors and their mutual relations, the formation, sending, and support of missionaries, as well as the administration and distinction of goods between the missions and the religious institute. In some cases, they also address the internal organization that various institutes have established to promote the progress of their own missions.
In this regard, particular mention should be made of the constitutions of several institutes dependent on Propaganda Fide with an exclusively missionary purpose. However, in this matter, the instruction of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide dated December 8, 1929, holds fundamental importance.