TERRITORI DI MISSIONE. – Mission territories, in accordance with can. 252, are exclusively those dependent on the S. Congreg. de Propaganda Fide (v. MISSIONI CATTOLICHE). At present they comprise various regions of the three Americas; all of Africa, with the exception of the dioceses of Algiers, Oran, Constantine and Carthage; Egypt; northern Ethiopia; Angola and Mozambique; all of Pakistan; India, except for the patriarchate of Goa; Ceylon; Burma; Siam; French Indochina; Indonesia, except for the diocese of Dili; China, except for the diocese of Macao; Korea; Japan; Australia; New Zealand; and Oceania, except for the diocese of Honolulu and Easter Island; in the Philippine Islands, only two vicariates and one apostolic prefecture.
In these territories the Church is organized into dioceses and quasi-dioceses (v.). Dioceses are found where the ordinary ecclesiastical hierarchy has been erected, namely in India, Pakistan, Japan, China, Australia, America, Europe and, recently, in British West Africa and the Union of South Africa. In many regions dioceses and quasi-dioceses coexist. There are no nullus prelatures, nor primatial or patriarchal sees. The patriarchal see of Goa is not dependent on Propaganda. Quasi-dioceses represent the extraordinary hierarchy proper to the missions, which nevertheless arose for reasons of a historical nature. Very few are also found in certain territories that have passed from Propaganda to the S. Congr. Orientale. At present, quasi-dioceses rather mark the various stages in the development of the nascent Church, whose territory begins with the missio sui iuris and, progressing through the apostolic prefecture and the vicariate, is raised to the status of a diocese, which represents the most perfect ecclesiastical jurisdiction and, in practice, the most developed and best-organized. A given territory, however, does not always pass through all the various stages indicated. At present, sui iuris missions are disappearing, and for several years none have been erected (v. SUPERIORE ECCLESIASTICO). Vicariates and apostolic prefectures, too, although still very numerous, are not tending to increase in number, owing to the gradual introduction of the ordinary hierarchy.
Missionary dioceses and quasi-dioceses are entrusted either to a religious institute or to the indigenous clergy. None is entrusted to the clergy of a European or American diocese (cf. S. Paventi, L'azione missionaria delle diocesi, in Missionswissenschaftliche Studien. Festgabe Dindinger, Aachen 1951, pp. 152–71; id., De actione missionali diocesorum, in Monitor ecclesiasticus, 76 [1951], pp. 449–55). Territories entrusted to the indigenous clergy more closely resemble territories governed by common law. In the others there is a commissio canonica on the part of the Holy See, which entrusts a given territory to the institute, not in perpetuity but ad nutum, with the duty of providing it with sufficient personnel and means, and granting rights, such as that the ecclesiastical superior of the territory belong to the institute. In these territories the missionaries, with regard to their religious discipline, depend on the religious superior, who is often also called the regional superior, especially in societies without vows; as regards the care of souls, they are subject to the ecclesiastical superior. Thus there is a diarchy, with reciprocal rights and duties clearly established by the instruction of Propaganda of 8 December 1929 and by other documents.
The development of missionary organization tends to lead missionary territories toward a new juridical situation, examples of which have already occurred in India and subsequently in China, and especially in Japan. In the future, territories will increasingly pass to indigenous Ordinaries, on whom the foreign missionaries will depend. The latter may be entrusted with the direction of some special work, such as colleges, schools or parishes. In Japan, on the other hand, they are assigned apostolic work in a large area of the diocese or quasi-diocese for a determined period. The area is regarded as a kind of vicariate forane, headed by the religious superior of the missionaries, to whom the local Ordinary communicates the necessary faculties. The other rights and duties of the two authorities are generally established by means of an agreement, to be approved by Propaganda.