Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/670

* MISSIONS. 598 MISSIONS. was endowed with many privileges by the popes. They cxeiu|)ted it from all ordinary ecclesiastical and'civil jurisdiction, and several special distinc- tions were granted it; auiouji otliers. the right of giving degrees in thcologj- and philosophy. Its present quarters were designed by ISeruini. and the chajM^l is the work of Borruniini. Seven months after their entrance the candidates for the missions are required to take an oath of obeilience to the Congregation ; among other things, they promise to go directly to their re- spective missions after ordination. Those who remain as missionaries in Europe (e.g. in the British Isles, the northern kingdoms, Switzer- land) are required to report annually to the Prefect of the Congregation; those whose mis- sions are elseivhere must write to him biennially. Not a few candidates, especially from the Orient, come at a very early age. Such youths do not take the 'missionary- oath' until after they have reached their fourteenth year. In this college the training is the usual seminary training. Only, for the l>eginners. Greek and Latin, and especially the suitable Oriental languages, make up the curriculum. The college owns near Rome its own country-seat or villegiature, whither the students go during the heated season. On Pente- cost one of the students of the college preaches before the Pope and the cardinals. Its students at the end of the eighteenth century were about 140; at present they do not e.ci«d 120. The French Revolution caused it to close its doors; but since lSOO-17 it has been opened for its former work, and many distinguished men have graduated from its classes. From 183C to 1S48 the teaching and discipline were under the con- trol of the .Jesuits. Since then they are provided for directly by the Congregation itself, which names a rector and vice-reetor with other offi- cials, and provides for the programme of studies. Several national colleges attend the lectures of its professors — thus, the North American, Cana- dian. Irish. Greek, Ruthcnian. and other national ecclesiastical schools frequent its class-rooms. Yearly an Accndemia Pohifilotta is held on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Discourses, poems, and addresses are then read in a great variety of languages, cliictly Oriental, and the ceremony is graced by the presence of many dignitaries of the Roman Court. Lately new and commodious quarters have been secured for the academic needs of the college. The Congregation has long owned and managed a printing-press that is uniipic on aceoimt of tho many kinds of type it possesses for the Oriental langliages. In the last two centuries a multitude of Orirnlal texts have come from its oltiees — lit'ir^iral. ascetic, literary, theological, patristic, historicordigious. There is perhaps nowhere else in the world an Oriental printing-press so well equipped and so scieiitilically conducted. It issues regularly a catalogue of its pviblica- tions. and ia ollieially known as the Xtamperia de Proiiaganda Fide. The Congrr'irnt ion of the Propaganda governs all Catholic missions according to the general law of tho Church, the decn>es of the Council of Trent, the decision's of other Rnm.in Concrega- tions. the Papal rescripts, .nnd the coneiliar legis- lation. Hut, over anil abovr the ordin.nry law there is a certain amount of special legislation for the missions and missionaries. As early as 1669 the Propaganda issued its Advice to Mis- sioTiaries, that has been lately reprinted (ilonita ad ilissionarios, Rome, 1874). The details of it» extensive legislation are to be found in the col- lection of its document known as the ISullarium of the Congregation (Rome, since 1S39, 5 vols., folio; with an index, 1S58). Another collection is that of Raphael de Jlartinls (7 vols., folio, Rome, 1880-1900). The particular legislation of the Propaganda affecting the t)ricntal missions is found in the work entitled Collecliuiea Con- stitutioiiiim, etc. (Paris, 1880), and in the .Ip- paratus Juris Ecclesiasiici of Zepbyrin Zitclli (Rome, I8SG). Occasionally the Congregation issues a legislation that niodilies the regular canonical procedure in justice; e.g. in the trial of matrimonial cases, clerical delicts, and other judicial processes. Such documents then Viecome norms of ecclesiastical government in the land for which they are issued. The current public documents of the Congregation may Ik? easily found in the Roman canon law periodical entitled Acta Sanclw jS'edis, and those of the Pojje in the annual series of Pontifical documents res|)ect- ively known as Acta Pii IX., Acta Leonis Sill., etc. Usually the establishment of a remote and difficult mission begins with the sending of a Pre- fect Apostolic by the Pofie. at the suggestion of the Congregation of the Propaganda. As a rule this missionar- is only a priest, but he receives certain special authorizations from the Holy See; e.g. the right to administer c<mtirmation. As soon as the conditions of the missicm warrant, a vicar apostolic is appointed to take charge of its interests. Such a missionary' is made a titular bishop; i.e. he is given the 'title' of some see, extinct or suppressed. No specific scat of resi- dence is fixed for him : he organizes the mission as best he can. In time sees are established with territorial limits, and canonical obligation of residence for the bishop: thus a quasi-normal condition arises in which the administration of spiritual affairs gradually grows quite like that of the older Catholic States of Europe, and the regular ecclesiastical law tends to obtain as against the temporary and opportunist ndminis- tr.ition of an earlier date. Nevertheless, for vari- ous reasons, the Holy See often continues to gov- ern such well-developed churches through the Congiogation of the Propaganda, instead of in- corporating them in the ordinary system of its administration. The Propaganda is thus one of the busiest of the Roman congregations. There come before it all questions that arise in 'mission- ary lands' concerning the creation of dioceses, their dismemberment, division, union, and trans- formation: the nominations to episcopal office; the relations, in last resort, of bishop and clerg>-; all questions between bishops and religious Or- ders, and between Orders themselves in matters of their mission work: the discipline and super- vision of national missionary colleges, theological seminaries in missionary lands: the regdar re- ports of its bishops, their special needs or plans, and similar things. It is in close contact with all other Roman congregations, to which it acts as a kind of clearinghouse for the missions and missionaries. Its juridical decisions are final, authoritative, and reversible only by the Pope, to whom they are nlwavs submitted beforehand when the gravity of the occasion or the natiire of the problem in question warrants. The Con- gregation has a permanent secretary, generally