Everything about Propaganda Fide totally explained
The
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (
Congregatio pro Gentium Evangelisatione) is the
congregation of the
Roman Curia responsible for
missionary work and related activities. It is perhaps better known by its former title, the
Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (
Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide). Renamed by
Pope John Paul II in
1982, its mission continues unbroken. The modern term "
propaganda" derives from the name of the Congregation and its mission; the word didn't acquire negative connotations until the nationalistic propaganda campaigns of
World War I.
Architecture
The construction of the palace was begun by
Gianlorenzo Bernini, but in 1644, he was substituted by
Francesco Borromini. This building and its chapel are one of Borromini's masterpieces.
History
Founded in
1622 by
Pope Gregory XV's bull
Inscrutabili Divinae, the body was charged with fostering the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of Catholic ecclesiastical affairs in non-Catholic countries. The intrinsic importance of its duties and the extraordinary extent of its authority and of the territory under its jurisdiction have caused the
Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda to be known as the "red pope".
At the time of its inception, the expansion of
colonial administrations was coming to be largely in
Dutch and
English hands, both
Protestant countries intent on spreading these religious doctrines and Rome perceived the very real threat of Protestantism spreading in the wake of commercial empire. By
1648, with the end of the
Thirty Years' War, the official religious balance of established Christianity in Europe was permanently stabilized, but new fields for evangelization were offered by vast regions of
Asia,
Africa and
the Americas then being explored.
There had already been a less formally instituted cardinal committee concerned with
propaganda fide since the time of
Pope Gregory XIII (
1572 -
1585), who were especially charged with promoting the union with Rome of the long-established eastern Christian communities:
Slavs,
Greeks,
Syrians,
Egyptians, and
Abyssinians. This was the traditional direction for the Catholic Church to look for evangelizing.
Catechisms were printed in many languages and seminarians sent to places as far as
Malabar. The most concrete result was the union with Rome of the
Ruthenian Catholic communion, most concentrated in modern day
Ukraine and
Belarus; the union was
formalized at Brest in
1508.
The death of
Gregory XV the following year didn't interrupt the organization, because Cardinal Barberini, one of the original thirteen members of the congregation, became the next pope as
Urban VIII (
1623-
1644). Under Urban VIII, a central seminary (the
Collegium urbanum) was set up for training missionaries. The Congregation also operated the polyglot printing press in Rome, printing catechisms in many languages. Their procurators were especially active in
China from
1705, moving between
Macau and
Canton before finally settling in
Hong Kong in
1842.
In strongly Protestant areas, the operations of the Congregation were considered subversive: the first missionary to be killed was in
Grisons,
Switzerland, in April
1622, before the papal bull authorizing its creation had been disseminated.
These "Cardinals in General Congregation" met weekly, keeping their records in
Latin until
1657, then in
Italian. The minutes are available in microfilm (filling 84 reels) at large libraries. In the course of their work, the
Propaganda fide missionaries accumulated the objects now in the
Vatican Museum's Ethnological Missionary Museum.
Since
1989 the incumbent Prefect is also President of the
Interdicasterial Commission for Consecrated Religious.
On
6 May 2006 Carlo Cardinal Caffarra was named a member of the Congregation.
Prefects
Further Information
Get more info on 'Propaganda Fide'.
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