Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/671

* MISSIONS. 599 MISSIONS. an archbishop, who goes weekly to the Vatican with tile ijroeeeJiilj.'s of the Coiij,'regalion, to sub- mit tlu'iii to the approval of the Pope and give such explauation-j as are needed. This oflice is looked on as 'cardinalitial.' i.e. as leading di- nitly to the dignity of cardinal — hence it is al- ways filled by an ecclesiastic of learning and ex- p.rienee. A large and valuable library is connected with the Congregation, for its own use, and for the needs of the college and the printing-press. It is especially rich in ancient theology and philos- ophy, and in all kinds of t)rientalia, both printed and manuscript. It is accessible to students and writers. 'The archives of the Congregation are kept ith care, and are of great value for the 1 ' ilesiastical and civil history of the missionary l.inds. Tbey are partially accessible under cer- tain conditions, and are now being used by his- tciiians of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eigh- teenth centuries, especially for the period of the Counter-Kcformation in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Besides the institutions described, the Propa- ganda posses.ses a valuatde museum, called the Borgian JIuseum, after a former Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal Stephen Borgia, who was its principal benefactor in the latter halt of the eighteenth century. This museum contains nu- merous rare and ancient charts and maps of the missionary lands, ctirios of all kinds, coins, docu- ments, and relics, that are often useful for pur- poses of archaeology or ethnologj". ilany valuable manuscripts, especially Coptic and Arabic, are kept there. Since 1882 the Congregation has recommended to its missionaries, in a very spe- cial way, the interests of the museum. Until 1862 the affairs of all the missionary churches. East and est, were treated in one and the same Congregation of the Propaganda. In that year Pius IX. established a special sec- tion of the Congregation for the administration of the Oriental churches (Sacra Conf/rrgatio pro Negotiis Ritus Orienfalis) . It has its own chief, a Cardinalis Poiiciis. and its own oflicials and counselors. To each curial (resident) cardinal of this section is allotted the conduct of the re- ligious affairs of some ime of the Oriental rites united with the Holy See; he is called the Car- dinalis Relator. (2) X.TioNAL Ai^D Particular Direction. The principal national missionary enterprises of Eonian Catholics are carried on from Paris and Lyons in France. The most venerable of them is the Seminari/ for Foreign Missions (Missions Etrmigcres), founded at Paris. 1058-63, and located in the Rue du Bae. Its missionaries are under the guidance of 33 local superiors (bish- ops) throughout China. Korea, Tibet. Turkey, Siam, Burma, and Hindustan. Since 1840 the Seminary has sent nut nearly 2000 priests: at present about 1200 French priests carry on its work, with the aid of some 600 native clergy. Between three and four hundred mission candi- dates study in its school at Paris. In twenty years its personnel has increased from 480 to 1200 — a phenomenon noticeable in nearly all other French missionary enterprises. Iii the Seminary is a curious and touching Musfum des Marfi/rs. The annual departure of its mis- sionaries from Paris gives occasion for a remark- able popular ceremony and demonstration. Since 1822 the Work of the Propagation of the Faith ((F.urre de la propagation do la foi) has been administered from Lyons. Its scope is not to send out missionaries, but to collect and dis- tribute to existing missions the funds received from private generosity. This is done without distinction of nationality or location. In 1S9S the association collected (mostly in France) nearly seven million francs. In fifty years it has distributed over twenty million dollars for Cath- olic foreign missions. The Work of the Holy Childhood (Q::uire de la sainte enfancc), a re- lated enterprise, has collected and sjient about ten million dollars. Oilier French associations for missionary help are the Work of the Oriental Schools, the annual collection on Ciood I'riday for the Holy Land, the Work of the African Missions, the Anti-Slavery Association, the While Fathers, the Fathers of the Uoly Ghost — all works estab- lished originally in France. There are many religious Orders and institutes in France which send numerous members to the mission fields; thus, there are some 750 French Jesuits in the Orient, and they carry on excellent colleges at Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria. In Syria they have some ISO .schools with 13.000 children. Similarly Lazarists, Dominicans, As- suniptionists, and others have numerous mis- sionaries scattered through the Orient. The Christian Brothers have many well-attended schools in Eg^•pt, Syria, A.sia Minor, at Con- stantinople, and in the Levant. Owing to colo- nial expansion, Catholic Ciermany has shown more interest in missions during the last three decades, though the earlier French "Works' al- ways found sympathy in Germany. The Boni- facius-V erein (1849) for home missions has spent in the fifty years of its existence some seven million dollars. The Ludwigs-V erein (1839), the Lcopolds-Verein (1839), the Afrika-V erein (1894), the Association for the Holy Lund (1893), and other enterprises have kept alive the zeal of German Catholics for the conversion of the heathen. In 1900 there were in all some 1100 Cierman Catholic mission.aries, of whom 489 were .Jesuits. This figure includes the 304 'Sis- ters' who labored in the same field. Within the last few years an increasing missionary activity is manifest, especially in China and Brazil, in which latter country the German colonists in- crease at a rapid rate. The French 'Sisterhoods' give generously of their members to the Oriental missions. Most of the missionaries to the credit of Catholicism are Frenchmen; a still larger proportion of the Catholic 'Sisters' on these missions is made up of French women. Perhaps 10,000 is not too high a number; in 1899 they were more than 9000. Of these the 'Sisters "of Charity' alone furnished about 1500. Of the 100 to 120' 'congre- gations' of men and women that labor in Catho- lic missionary fields, over 80 are of French tongue, or have their liome in France. While the Spanish missionaries have nearly all taken their way to the Phili])pines, the Italian missionaries carry on, in an hereditary way. cer- tain lines of work in the Orient, notably in the Levant. Statistics of their number and work are not easily reached. The Salesian Fathers (Turin) of Don Bosco turn their energy toward South America, and the society founded by Bish- op Scalambrini, of Piaeenza, is especially in- terested in the Italian population of South America and our North American cities. Holland