Catholic missions

Catholic missions — Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, parishes and dioceses would be organized worldwide, often after an intermediate phase as an apostolic prefecture or apostolic vicariate. Catholic mission has predominantly been carried out by the Latin Church in practice.

In the Roman Curia, missionary work is organised by the Dicastery for Evangelisation.

Historical overview

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, Christian monasteries and missionaries (such as Saint Patrick and Adalbert of Prague) fostered formal education and learning of religion, beyond the boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In the seventh century, Gregory the Great sent missionaries, including Augustine of Canterbury, into England. The Hiberno-Scottish mission began in 563 CE.

In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Franciscans (such as William of Rubruck, John of Montecorvino, and Giovanni ed' Magnolia) were sent as missionaries to the Near and Far East. Their travels took them as far as China, in an attempt to convert the advancing Mongols to Christianity, especially the Great Khans of the Mongol Empire. (See also Catholic Church in China.)

Age of Discovery

Beginning in the 1450s, Catholic missions were administered through patronage rights (jus patronatus).^{: 11}

During the Age of Discovery, the Catholic Church established a number of missions in the Americas and other colonies through the Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans in order to spread Catholicism in the New World and to convert the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other indigenous people. At the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans were moving into Asia and the Far East. The Portuguese sent missions into Africa. These are some of the most well-known missions in history.

In the empires ruled by both Portugal and Spain, religion was an integral part of the state and evangelization was seen as having both secular and spiritual benefits. Wherever these powers attempted to expand their territories or influence, missionaries would soon follow. By the Treaty of Tordesillas, the two powers divided the world between them into exclusive spheres of influence, trade, and colonization.^{: 11} The Catholic world order was challenged by the Netherlands and England. Theoretically, it was repudiated by Grotius's Mare Liberum. Portugal's and Spain's colonial policies were also challenged by the Catholic Church itself. The Vatican founded the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1622 and attempted to separate the churches from the influence of the Iberian kingdoms.

While missions in areas ruled by Spanish and Portuguese, and to a lesser extent, the French, are associated with cultural imperialism and oppression, and often operated under the sponsorship and consent of colonial governments, those in other portions of the world (notably Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China, and the work of other Jesuit missionaries in the Nagasaki region in Japan) were focused on the conversion of individuals within existing social and political structures, and often operated without the consent of local government.

History by region

India

Early missionaries

John of Monte Corvino was a Franciscan sent to China to become prelate of Peking in around 1307. He traveled from Persia and moved down by sea to India in 1291, to the Madras region or "Country of St. Thomas". There he preached for thirteen months and baptized about one hundred people. From there Monte Corvino wrote home, in December 1291 (or 1292), giving one of the earliest noteworthy accounts of the Coromandel coast furnished by any Western European. Traveling by sea from Mailapur, he reached China in 1294, appearing in the capital "Cambaliech" (now Beijing).

Friar Odoric of Pordenone arrived in India in 1321. He visited Malabar, touching at Pandarani (20 m. north of Calicut) at Cranganore and at Kulam or Quilon, proceeding thence, apparently, to Ceylon and to the shrine of St Thomas at Maylapur near Madras. He writes that he had found the place where Thomas was buried.

The French Dominican missionary Father Jordanus Catalani followed in 1321–22. He reported to Rome, apparently from somewhere on the west coast of India, that he had given Christian burial to four martyred monks. Jordanus is known for his 1329 Mirabilia describing the marvels of the East: he furnished the best account of Indian regions and the Christians, the products, climate, manners, customs, fauna and flori given by any European in the Middle Ages – superior even to Marco Polo's.

In 1347, Giovanni de Marignolli visited the shrine of St Thomas near the modern Madras, and then proceeded to what he calls the kingdom of Saba and identifies with the Sheba of Scripture, but which seems from various particulars to have been Java. Taking ship again for Malabar on his way to Europe, he encountered great storms.

Another prominent Indian traveler was Joseph, priest over Cranganore. He journeyed to Babylon in 1490 and then sailed to Europe and visited Portugal, Rome, and Venice before returning to India. He helped to write a book about his travels entitled The Travels of Joseph the Indian which was widely disseminated across Europe.

Arrival of the Portuguese

The introduction of Catholicism in India begins from the first decade of 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries there. In the 16th century, the proselytization of Asia was linked to the Portuguese colonial policy. With the Papal bull Romanus Pontifex written on 8 January 1455 by Pope Nicholas V to King Afonso V of Portugal, the patronage for the propagation of the Christian faith (see "Padroado") in Asia was given to the Portuguese, who were rewarded with the right of conquest. The missionaries of the different orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Augustinians, etc.) flocked out with the conquerors, and began at once to build churches along the coastal districts wherever the Portuguese power made itself felt.

The history of Portuguese missionaries in India starts with the neo-apostles who reached Kappad near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498 along with Vasco da Gama, which represented less than 2% of the total population and was the largest Christian church within India. He was seeking to form anti-Islamic alliances with pre-existing Christian nations. The lucrative spice trade attracted the Portuguese crown.

During the second expedition under Captain Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese fleet consisted of 13 ships and 18 priests anchored at Cochin on 26 November 1500. Cabral soon won the goodwill of the Raja of Cochin who allowed four priests to do apostolic work among the early Christian communities scattered in and around Cochin. Thus missionaries established a Portuguese mission in 1500. Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy, got permission from the Kochi Raja to build two church edifices – Santa Cruz Basilica (1505) and St. Francis Church (1506) using stones and mortar which were unheard of at that time, as local prejudices were against such a structure except for a royal palace or a temple.

In the beginning of the 16th century, the whole of the East was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Lisbon. On 12 June 1514, Cochin and Goa became two prominent mission stations under the newly created Diocese of Funchal in Madeira, in the Atlantic. In 1534 Pope Paul III by the Bull Quequem Reputamus raised Funchal to an archdiocese with Goa as its suffragan, placing the whole of India under the diocese of Goa. This created an episcopal see – suffragan to Funchal, with a jurisdiction extending potentially over all past and future conquests from the Cape of Good Hope to China.

The first converts to Christianity in Goa were native Goan women who married Portuguese men that arrived with Afonso de Albuquerque during the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510.

During the mid-16th century, the city of Goa, was the center of Christianization in the East. The Portuguese rulers implemented state policies encouraging and even rewarding conversions among Hindu subjects, it would be false to ascribe the large number of conversions to force. The rapid rise of converts in Goa was mostly the result of Portuguese economic and political control over the Hindus, who were vassals of the Portuguese crown. At the same time many New Christians from Portugal migrated to India as a result of the inquisition in Portugal. Many of them were suspected of being Crypto-Jews, converted Jews who were secretly practicing their old religion, and were considered a threat to the solidarity of Christian belief. Saint Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to John III of Portugal, requested the Goan Inquisition, but it was not set up until 1560.

In 1557 Goa was made an independent archbishopric, with suffragan sees at Cochin and Malacca. The whole of the East was under the jurisdiction of Goa and its boundaries extended to almost half of the world: from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, to Burma, China, and Japan in East Asia. In 1576 the suffragan See of Macao (China) was added, and in 1588 that of Funai in Japan.

In 1597 the death of the last metropolitan bishop, Archdeacon Abraham of the Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient body formerly part of the Church of the East gave the then Archbishop of Goa Menezes an opportunity to bring the native church under the authority of the Catholic Church. He was able to secure the submission of Archdeacon George, the highest remaining representative of the native church hierarchy. Menezes convened the Synod of Diamper between 20 and 26 June 1599, which introduced a number of reforms to the church and brought it fully into the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Following the Synod, Menezes consecrated Jesuit Francis Ros as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Angamalé for the Saint Thomas Christians – another suffragan see to Archdiocese of Goa – and Latinisation of St Thomas Christians started. Most eventually accepted the Catholic faith but some switched to West Syrian rite. The Saint Thomas Christians were pressured to acknowledge the authority of the Pope. Resentment of these measures led to some part of the community to join the Archdeacon Thomas in swearing never to submit to the Portuguese or to accept Communion with Rome, in the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653.

The Diocese of Angamaly was transferred to Diocese of Craganore in 1605, and in 1606 a sixth suffragan see to Goa was established at San Thome, Mylapore, near the modern Madras. The suffragan sees added later to Goa were the prelacy of Mozambique in 1612 and Peking and Nanking in China in 1690.

Missionary work progressed on a large scale and with great success along the western coasts, chiefly at Chaul, Bombay, Salsette, Bassein, Damao, and Diu, as well as on the eastern coasts at San Thome of Mylapore as far as Bengal. In the southern districts the Jesuit mission in Madura was the most famous. It extended to the Krishna River, with a number of outlying stations beyond it. The mission of Cochin on the Malabar Coast was also one of the most fruitful. Several missions were also established in the interior northwards, e.g., that of Agra and Lahore in 1570 and that of Tibet in 1624. Still, even with these efforts, the greater part even of the coast line was by no means fully worked, and many vast tracts of the interior northwards were practically untouched.

With the decline of Portuguese power other colonial powers – the Dutch and British and Christian organisations – gained influence.

Japan

Portuguese shipping arrived in Japan in 1543. Catholic missionary activities in Japan began in earnest around 1549, performed in the main by Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits until Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders such as the Franciscans and Dominicans gained access to Japan. Of the 95 Jesuits who worked in Japan up to 1600, 57 were Portuguese, 20 were Spaniards and 18 Italian. Jesuit Fathers Francisco Xavier, Cosme de Torres, and Juan Fernández were the first to arrive at Kagoshima with hopes of bringing Catholic Christianity to Japan.

Spain and Portugal disputed the attribution of Japan. Since neither could colonize it, the exclusive right to propagate Christianity in Japan meant the exclusive right to trade with Japan. Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits under Alessandro Valignano took the lead in proselytizing in Japan over the objection of the Spaniards. This fait accompli was approved in Pope Gregory XIII's papal bull of 1575, which decided that Japan belonged to the Portuguese diocese of Macau. In 1588 the diocese of Funai (Nagasaki) was founded under Portuguese protection.

In rivalry with the Jesuits, Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders entered Japan via Manila. While criticizing Jesuit activities, they actively lobbied the Pope. Their campaigns resulted in Pope Clement VIII's decree of 1600 which allowed Spanish friars to enter Japan via the Portuguese Indies, and Pope Paul V's decree of 1608 which abolished the restrictions on the route. The Portuguese accused Spanish Jesuits of working for their homeland instead of their patron.

China

The history of the missions of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits in Ming and Qing China stands as one of the notable events in the early history of relations between China and the Western world, as well as a prominent example of relations between two cultures and belief systems in the pre-modern age. The missionary efforts and other work of the Jesuits in 16th, 17th, and 18th century played a significant role in introducing European science and culture to China. Their work laid much of the foundation for much of Christian culture in Chinese society today. Members of the Jesuit delegation to China were perhaps the most influential Christian missionaries in that country between the earliest period of the religion up until the 19th century, when significant numbers of Catholic and Protestant missions developed.

Despite earlier evangelization under the Tang and Yuan, by the 16th century there is no reliable evidence for any practicing Christians remaining in China. The Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares reached Guangdong in 1513, establishing direct maritime connection between China and Europe; within six years of the Jesuit's 1540 founding, two Chinese boys were enrolled in their college in Goa, India. One of them, known by his baptismal name Antonio, travelled with the Jesuit founder St Francis Xavier when he tried to begin missionary work in China in the early 1550s. Unable to receive permission to enter the country, however, Xavier died on Shangchuan Island off the coast of Guangdong in 1552.

With the Portuguese establishing an enclave on Zhongshan Island's Macau Peninsula, Jesuits established a base nearby on Green Island (now the SAR's "Ilha Verde" neighborhood). Alessandro Valignano, the new regional manager ("visitor") of the order, came to Macau in 1578–1579 and established St. Paul's College to begin training future missionaries in the language and culture of the Chinese. He requested assistance from the orders' members in Goa in bringing over suitably talented linguists to staff the college and begin the mission in earnest.

In 1582, Jesuits once again initiated mission work inside China, introducing Western science, mathematics, astronomy, and cartography. Missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell wrote Chinese catechisms and made influential converts like Xu Guangqi, establishing Christian settlements throughout the country and becoming close to the imperial court, particularly its Ministry of Rites, which oversaw official astronomy and astrology. "Jesuits were accepted in late Ming court circles as foreign literati, regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography." By 1610, more than two thousand Chinese from all levels of society had converted. Clark has summarized as follows:

"When all is said and done, one must recognize gladly that the Jesuits made a shining contribution to mission outreach and policy in China. They made no fatal compromises, and where they skirted this in their guarded accommodation to the Chinese reverence for ancestors, their major thrust was both Christian and wise. They succeeded in rendering Christianity at least respectable and even credible to the sophisticated Chinese, no mean accomplishment."

This influence worked in both directions:

[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China. They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture.

Ricci and others including Michele Ruggieri, Philippe Couplet, and François Noël undertook a century-long effort in translating the Chinese classics into Latin and spreading knowledge of Chinese culture and history in Europe, influencing its developing Enlightenment.

The introduction of the Franciscans and other orders of missionaries, however, led to a long-running controversy over Chinese customs and names for God. The Jesuits, the secularized mandarins, and eventually the Kangxi Emperor himself maintained that Chinese veneration of ancestors and Confucius were respectful and secular rituals compatible with Christian doctrine; other orders pointed to the beliefs of the common people of China to show that it was impermissible idolatry and that the common Chinese names for God confused the Creator with His creation. Acting on the complaint of the Bishop of Fujian, Pope Clement XI finally ended the dispute with a decisive ban in 1704; his legate Charles-Thomas Maillard De Tournon issued summary and automatic excommunication of any Christian permitting Confucian rituals as soon as word reached him in 1707. By that time, however, Tournon and Bishop Maigrot had displayed such extreme ignorance in questioning before the throne that the Kangxi Emperor mandated the expulsion of Christian missionaries unable to abide by the terms of Ricci's Chinese catechism. Tournon's policies, confirmed by Clement's 1715 bull Ex Illa Die..., led to the swift collapse of all of the missions across China, with the last Jesuits—obliged to maintain allegiance to the papal rulings—finally being expelled after 1721.

Catholic mission work began again following the opening up of the country after the Treaty of Nanking in the 1830s. The Treaty of Huangpu institutionalised benefits for French Catholics, including the ability to operate and establish religious institutions in the treaty ports, decriminalisation of Catholicism throughout China, and providing that any missionaries discovered by Chinese authorities outside the treaty ports should be escorted to a French consulate.^{: 15}

France asserted its religious protectorate in China beginning in the 1840s.^{: 63} The French religious protectorate in China operated through two key functions: (1) it gave foreign missionaries access to China's interior, and (2) it defended Catholics in Chinese court proceedings.^{: 16} The protectorate provided a mechanism for France to expand its influence in China and gain prestige relative to the other European powers.^{: 15–17} France also obtained intelligence benefits, as missionaries were expected to relay useful information to French authorities.^{: 17} France obtained further privileges through the Sino-French Beijing Convention of 1860, which followed the Qing government's loss in the Second Opium War.^{: 15} Christian missionaries had the ability to travel anywhere in China's interior and buy property in China's interior.^{: 15}

In 1907, the publication of Canon Léon Joly's Le Christianisme et l'Extrême-Orient resulted in major reactions from Catholic missionaries in China.^{: 43} Léon Joly's's study of missionary histories in Asia concluded that Church missions had been a failure to date, achieving little despite major financial investments and personnel investment across centuries.^{: 43} In Léon Joly's view, Catholic missions in China had failed because of the Church's reliance on foreign political power and European clergy keeping Chinese in subordinate positions,^{: 43} creating European spiritual colonies rather than local churches.^{: 491}

Within months of his election, Pope Pius XII issued a further change in policies. On 8 December 1939, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith issued—at the request of Pope Pius—a new instruction, by which Chinese customs were no longer considered superstitious, but instead an honourable way of esteeming one's relatives and therefore permitted by the Catholic Church.

Pope Pius XII's initial move towards greater leniency was subsequently confirmed and expanded by Vatican II.

Middle East

Bishop Nicholas Samra notes that the Latin Church sent missionaries to the Middle East from the 1600's, ostensibly to convert Muslims, but unsuccessfully, "because Islam prohibited conversions to Christianity". Instead, their energies were devoted to "converting" Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Christians to Latin church practices.

Río de la Plata

The missions were established by the Jesuit Order early in the 17th century and ended in the late 18th century after the expulsion of the Jesuit order from the Americas. The Jesuits attempted to create a "state within a state" in which the native peoples in the reductions, guided by the Jesuits, would remain autonomous and isolated from Spanish colonists and Spanish rule. A major factor attracting the natives to the reductions was the protection they afforded from enslavement and the forced labour of encomiendas.

Maya

There are records of Franciscan activity on the Americas as early as 1519. Throughout the early 16th century the mission movement spread from the Caribbean to Mexico, Central America, parts of South America, and the Southwest United States.

The goal of the Franciscan missions was to spread the Christian faith to the people of the New World through "word and example". Spreading Christianity to the newly discovered continent was a top priority, but only one piece of the Spanish colonization system. The influence of the Franciscans, considering that missionaries are sometimes seen as tools of imperialism, enabled other objectives to be reached, such as the extension of Spanish language, culture, and political control to the New World. A goal was to change the agricultural or nomadic Indian into a model of the Spanish people and society. Basically, the aim was for urbanization. The missions achieved this by "offering gifts and persuasion…and safety from enemies". This protection also offered security for the Spanish military operation, since there would be theoretically less warring if the natives were pacified. Thus the missionaries assisted with another aim of the colonizers.

California

Between 1769 and 1823, Spanish members of the Franciscan Order established and operated 21 missions in California to convert the Native Americans. This was the first major effort by Europeans to colonize the Pacific Coast region and gave Spain a valuable toehold on this frontier. The settlers introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry but Spanish occupation also brought negative consequences to the native populations. Today the missions are among the state's oldest structures and most-visited historic monuments; many of them also remain in operation as Catholic churches.

New Mexico

The missions in New Mexico were established by Franciscan friars to convert the local Pueblo, Navajo, and Apaches. The first permanent settlement was Mission San Gabriel in 1598 near what is now known as the San Juan Pueblo.

Contemporary missions

Catholic missionary work has undergone profound change since the Second Vatican Council. It has prioritized social justice issues and striven to avoid the dangers of cultural imperialism or economic exploitation that had often accompanied religious conversion. Christian missionaries recognize that working for justice is a constitutive part of preaching the Gospel and usually observe the principles of inculturation in their missionary work. Before Vatican II "baptism of desire" and salvation outside the Catholic Church were allowed very little scope. With the Council's emphasis on individual conscience, baptism is seen not only as the ordinary means of salvation but as a vocation call for Christians to spread the good news of God's love to all peoples by their practice of true charity, that is universal and inclusive of all God's children.

The Church on mission through its various religious and lay associations is today much more involved in an option for the poor and integral human development than in proselytizing. In 2016 Pope Francis formed a Department for Promoting Integral Human Development in the Roman Curia to oversee numerous Catholic outreach programs fostered directly by the Vatican. Not that such missions are new; Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations that date back since just after Pope Leo XIII's social encyclical Rerum novarum in 1893. And today Jesuit missions, as in Africa and India, are more involved in educating and further assisting the poorest rural populations, such as the Dalits and Adivasi in India, than in direct conversion efforts. This is true also in China where proselytizing was forbidden but many Christians assisted with language studies. The present practice in Asia and Africa is detailed in the articles on hundreds of educational institutions and development centres that the Jesuits administer. Much the same can be said of other Catholic lay and religious groups and their contemporary missions.

See also

• Catholic Church in China
• Catholic Church in Sichuan
• Catholic Church in Tibet
• List of Roman Catholic missionaries
  • List of Roman Catholic missionaries in China
• Spanish missions in the Americas
  • Spanish missions in South America
• Spanish Redemptorist missions in Sichuan
• Evangelism
• Fidesco International
• Society for the Propagation of the Faith

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

The history of Catholic Missions would necessarily begin with the missionary labours of Christ, and would cover a very considerable portion of the history of the Catholic Church. The principal chapters of this history will be found elsewhere in THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, in the articles devoted to the various countries, provinces, dioceses, vicariates, religious orders, and congregations, notable missionaries, etc. The present article will be confined to a short general survey of the missionary activity of the Catholic Church at the present day. The subject, as thus limited, may conveniently be considered under the following heads:

• Organization of Catholic Missions;
• Receipts and Expenditure;
• Utility and Object of Mission Statistics;
• Statistics.

I. Organization

The main direction of the Catholic missions is vested in the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda under the supreme jurisdiction of which stand most of the missions of the Catholic world (see PROPAGANDA, CONGREGATION OF). This congregation determines the ecclesiastical rank of each mission (prefecture, vicariate, diocese), assigning to it a superior according to this rank, and undertakes the duty of supplying missionaries wherever their services are necessary. For the training of Catholic missionaries numerous secular seminaries have been instituted; the most important are: the Urban (so called after its founder, Urban VIII), English, Irish, Scotch, American, and Canadian Colleges at Rome; Pontifical Seminary of Kandy; Leonine Seminary of Athens; the seminaries at Milan, Lyons, and Paris (this last is the headquarters of the famous Society of Foreign Missions); Josephinum College, Columbus, Ohio, U. S. A.; American College, Louvain; English Colleges at Valladolid and Lisbon; Scotch College at Valladolid; Irish College, Paris; All Hallows, Dublin; St. Joseph's Seminary, Mill Hill, London; St. Joseph's, Rozendaal, Holland; St. Joseph's, Brixin, Tyrol; General College of Pulo Pinang. The religious orders -- Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Augustinians, etc. -- which continue with unabated zeal to labour for the propagation of the Gospel, are assisted by a series of new orders and congregations. It will be sufficient to cite here the names of the societies most widely engaged in foreign missions, and to refer the reader to the special articles for particulars: Congregation of the Holy Ghost and the Immaculate Heart of Mary; Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists); Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Society of Mary; Oratorians and Oblates of St. Francis de Sales; Redemptorists; Paulists; Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; Priests of the Foreign Missions (Missions Etrangères). For a fuller list see "Missiones Catholicæ", 853-8. Among the colleges of the regular orders specially devoted to the training of missionaries may be mentioned: the College of St. Fidelis (Capuchin), College of St. Anthony (Franciscan), College of St. Isidore (Irish Franciscan), and the College of the Irish Augustinians, at Rome; Seminary of Scheut, near Brussels (Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary); the colleges of the Society of African Missionaries (White Fathers); the Veronese Institute and the colleges of the Society of the Divine Word.

II. Receipts and Expenditure

Of late years the support formerly lent by various European states to missionary enterprises has been considerably diminished, and the missions are to-day largely dependent for their support on the voluntary contributions of the faithful. For the collection of these offerings missionary societies have been founded in the different Catholic countries. The most important of these societies are: the Society of Foreign Missions (Missions Etrangères), founded at Paris, 1820; Society for the Propagation of the Faith, founded at Lyons, 1822; Leopoldinische Stiftung, founded at Vienna, 1829; Bavarian Ludwig-Missionsverein (1839); Society of the Holy Childhood (Paris, 1843); Society of the Holy Land (1895). To arrive at even an approximate estimate of the total sum contributed by Catholics towards their foreign missions is impossible. To regard the sums collected by a few of the leading missionary societies as the total Catholic contribution towards the missions, and to take such total as indicative of Catholic interest in the propagation of the Gospel (as is too commonly done to-day by some controversialists), is manifestly indefensible. Not only are no statistics of receipts available for many of the missionary societies, but no estimate can be made of the great sums expended by all the religious orders and congregations (which are in turn practically dependent on voluntary contributions) on the preparation of their members for missionary labours and on the missions themselves.

Again, the numberless contributions made directly to the missions, offerings given to non-missionary orders or secular priests to be forwarded to the heads of certain missions, legacies and similar gifts, never appear in the statistics of receipts furnished by the collecting societies. So important a portion of the total amount do these contributions form that Baumgarten ("Die kathol. Kirche u. ihre Diener in Wort u. Bild", III, Munich, 1903, p. 399) declares that we must multiply the sum collected by the missionary societies by four or five to arrive approximately at the sum contributed towards Catholic missions. Those who contrast the apparent totals of the sums contributed by Catholics and Protestants towards their respective missions thus fail to take into account all the data for the comparison. Krose (op. cit. in bibliography, p. 38) quotes the case of two similarly situated states of about the same size, Catholic Belgium and Protestant Holland, whose respective contributions towards foreign missions were 1,019,474 (only the sum collected by a few of the leading missionary societies) and 701,000 francs. The same writer points out (loc. cit.) that, even accepting the known Catholic contributions as the total, and accepting the Protestant total at the figure given by their own statisticians, the German Catholics contributed 15 pfennig per capita towards their missions, and the German Protestants 12 pfennig, although the latter are, as a class, the wealthier. This last circumstance, indeed, merits special attention, if we would not accept a single large donation of a millionaire as indicative of more widespread missionary zeal than a thousand humble subscriptions of the poor. The astonishing success of the Catholic missions during the nineteenth century, although most of the property of the missionary orders was confiscated or secularized, was entirely due to the extraordinary zeal and self-sacrifice of the Catholic missionaries in the face of innumerable difficulties. Regular contributions to the missionary societies and the centralization of the missions fund are highly desirable: men are, as a rule, ready to subscribe freely to conspicuously successful missions, while the less prosperous, in which the missionaries have to face perhaps greater obstacles and disappointments, receive but faint support.

III. Utility and Object of Mission Statistics

Scientifically compiled statistics render self-deception impossible, preventing us from being unduly elated or disheartened by isolated successes or reverses. They tend, also, to lessen the heated controversies which, unfortunately, too frequently centre around the Christian missions. The duty of supplying the public with accurate and complete statistics rests with the missionaries themselves. A report of comparative failure does not prejudice their cause: the more numerous the difficulties with which they have to contend, the more conspicuous is their self-sacrifice. As, however, statistics now receive the attention of all denominations, words of explanation should be added concerning local difficulties, and in cases where a non-Catholic might be misled. Thus, e. g., a non-Catholic might not know that a Catholic priest may not, in general, baptize a pagan child without its parents' consent, nor an adult without proper instruction.

The object of mission statistics is to supply the reader with such information as will enable him to judge how far the work of the mission has been successful. The special points on which exact information is most desirable may be grouped under four heads: (1) Number of Christians; (2) Personnel of the Mission; (3) Mission Establishments; (4) Administrative Statistics.

(1) Number of Christians

In recording the number of Christians, a distinction should always be drawn between converted heathens and Christian settlers. While, in most missionary countries, the latter class may constitute so small a proportion of the totals as to be negligible, there are many countries in which the number is sufficiently large to create a false idea of the progress of the mission, if this distinction be not observed in the statistics. A distinction between Christians and catechumens is equally necessary, and under the former head none but the baptized should ever be included. By catechumens are to be understood only such heathens as are actually being instructed for baptism: as they constitute the harvest of the mission, they should never be excluded (as is now too often the case) from the statistics.

(2) Personnel of the Mission

The statistics concerning the personnel of the mission should state how many are priests, the term missionary being used exclusively of such. How many of the missionaries are natives should also be indicated, since this information reveals the progress made towards the ideal of all missionary work, the establishment of a native priesthood. Besides the number of missionaires, exact information should be given concerning the male and female auxiliaries, who are engaged as catechists, as teachers, or to care for the sick; likewise concerning all the lay brothers and sisters (not, however, mere servants) who are employed directly or indirectly in the work of evangelization.

(3) Mission Establishments

In this category may be classed the mission-stations, churches, chapels, schools of every kind, hospitals, and charitable establishments. Chief stations are most simply distinguished from sub-stations by confining the former term to stations which have at least one resident missionary, and the latter to stations where Divine service is periodically or constantly held by a non-resident missionary. To attempt to restrict the term chief station to centres of unusual missionary activity must lead to great uncertainty, as it would be hopeless to expect that any uniform dividing-line could be universally observed. Again, the name sub-station should never be applied to places where instruction alone is given: the number of such might easily assume proportions which would almost necessarily lead to misapprehension of the exact position of Christianity in the country. Outposts, such as those here indicated, should (if given) be kept separate from the stations. The schools and educational establishments possess a peculiar interest, since in many lands the task of reclaiming adults of a low cultural level, whose minds are obsessed with superstitions and brutalized by crime, is a well-nigh impossible one. The statistics should always distinguish between male and female, elementary and secondary, Catholic and non-Catholic pupils, and also between ordinary pupils and orphans. It is also advisable to specify the teaching staff (European and native) and the number of pupils receiving instruction in handicrafts and agriculture. A seminary, if such exists, should receive special mention, since it has an important bearing on the formation of a native priesthood. Other institutions may be given under one head, as in many cases one building serves for various purposes.

(4) Administrative Statistics

The figures dealing with the actual ministry of the missionaries are of course the surest indication of the progress of Christianity. In giving the number of baptisms, adults should always be distinguished from children, the number baptized in articulo mortis being given in both cases. The number of Easter and of devotional communions (given separately) are of special importance as indicating approximately the number of Christians who have reached the use of reason and the fervour of religious life. Such concrete figures give a better idea of the spirituality of the newly-converted than long dissertations on their zeal. Naturally, explanations of local conditions must accompany the figures, which might otherwise lead to misconception.

IV. Statistics of the Catholic Missions

In dealing with mission statistics, it is a matter of the utmost importance to make clear from the first in what precise sense the word mission is to be understood. In canon law the term signifies all districts which are subject to the Congregation of Propaganda, and it might thus include territories (e. g., until November, 1908, England and the United States) with which the idea of mission is never associated in ordinary speech. We also find two clearly defined meanings commonly assigned to the word by popular usage. By missionary activity is often understood all efforts directed towards the propagation of the Faith, whether among heathens or among non-Catholics; more usually, however, the word mission is confined to the work of bringing pagans into the Church. In view of this difference in the use of the term mission, our statistics will contain a statement of the present condition of;

• (1) the Catholic missions in lands prevailingly or exclusively pagan, and
• (2) the Catholic missions in lands which have been won to Christianity since the Reformation.

As the negroes of the United States are admitted into the statistics of Protestant missions, the inclusion of this second class is necessary to supply a uniform basis of comparison between Catholic and non-Catholic missionary activity.

STATISTICAL TABLE OF CATHOLIC MISSIONS; Part A
GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS	CATHOLICS		Catechumens	MISSIONARIES
	Total	Of European Race		Total	Native
Japan and Dependencies
China and Dependencies (inc. Macao)
Further India
East Indies
India and Ceylon
Anterior Asia
Mindanao

Bibliography

Cited sources

• Clendinnen, Inga (1982). "Disciplining the Indians: Franciscan Ideology and Missionary Violence in Sixteenth-Century Yucatán". Past and Present (94). Boston: Oxford University Press: 27–48. doi:10.1093/past/94.1.27.
• de Mendonça, Délio (2002). Conversions and Citizenry: Goa Under Portugal, 1510-1610. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-81-7022-960-5.
• Frykenberg, Robert E. (2008). Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198263777.
• Graham, Elizabeth (1998). "Mission Archeology". Annual Review of Anthropology. 27 (1). Annual Reviews: 25–62. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.27.1.25.
• Habig, Marion A. (1945). "The Franciscan Provinces of Spanish North America [Concluded]". The Americas. 1 (3). Academy of American Franciscan History: 330–44. doi:10.2307/978158. JSTOR 978158.
• Kelsey, Harry (1993). Mission San Juan Capistrano: A Pocket History. Interdisciplinary Research, Inc., Altadena, California. ISBN 978-0-9785881-0-6.
• Lee, Antoinette J. (1990). "Spanish Missions". APT Bulletin. 22 (3). Association for Preservation Technology International: 42–54. doi:10.2307/1504327. JSTOR 1504327.
• Udías, Agustín (2003). Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 9781402011894.
• Wilmshurst, David (2000). The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Louvain: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 9789042908765.

Further reading

• Beebe, Rose Marie, and Robert M. Senkewicz, eds. Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary (U of Oklahoma Press, 2015), on 18th century Spanish missions in California
• Curtis, Sarah A. "The Double Invisibility of Missionary Sisters." Journal of Women's History 28.4 (2016): 134–143, deals with French missionaries.
• De Landa, Diego (1974). Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. Alfred M. Tozzer (trans.). Boston: Periodicals Service Company. ISBN 0-527-01245-9.
• Forrestal, Alison, and Seán Alexander Smith, eds. The Frontiers of Mission: Perspectives on Early Modern Missionary Catholicism (Brill, 2016).
• McClain, Lisa. "On a Mission: Priests, Jesuits", Jesuitresses," and Catholic Missionary Efforts in Tudor-Stuart England." Catholic Historical Review 101.3 (2015): 437-462.
• Nolan, Francis. The White Fathers in Colonial Africa (1919–1939) (Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 2012). Pp. 472. ISBN 9966086552
• O’Brien, Anne. "Catholic nuns in transnational mission, 1528–2015", Journal of Global History 11.3 (2016): 387–408.
• Okachibe Okpanachi, Blaise, Nigerian-Vatican Diplomatic Relations: Evangelisation and Catholic Missionary Enterprise, 1884–1950 (Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang. 2013) online review
• Sievernich, Michael (2011). "Catholic Mission". European History Online. Mainz: Institute of European History. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
• Stock, Eugene; Andrews, Herbert Tom; Grieve, Alexander James (1911). "Missions". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). p. 587.
• Veale, Ailish. "International and Modern Ideals in Irish Female Medical Missionary Activity, 1937–1962", Women's History Review 25.4 (2016): 602–618.
• Wall, Barbra Mann. Into Africa: A Transnational History of Catholic Medical Missions and Social Change (Rutgers UP, 2015).
• Wiest, Jean-Paul. "Bringing Christ to the nations: shifting models of mission among Jesuits in China." The Catholic Historical Review 83.4 (1997): 654–681. online
• Williams, Maria Patricia, "Mobilising Mother Cabrini's educational practice: the transnational context of the London school of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus 1898–1911." History of Education 44.5 (2015): 631–650.
• Peter Rohrbacher: Völkerkunde und Afrikanistik für den Papst. Missionsexperten und der Vatikan 1922–1939 in: Römische Historische Mitteilungen 54 (2012), 583–610.

Historiography

• Dries, Angelyn, "" National and Universal": Nineteenth-and Twentieth-Century Catholic Missions and World Christianity in The Catholic Historical Review." Catholic Historical Review 101.2 (2015) pp. 242–273.
• Hsia, R. Po-chia, "The Catholic Historical Review: One Hundred Years of Scholarship on Catholic Missions in the Early Modern World", Catholic Historical Review 101.2 (2015): 223–241. online, mentions over 100 articles and books, mostly on North America and Latin America.