Cardinals and the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide

Chapter 26 Cardinals and the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide Giovanni Pizzorusso 1 Objectives of the Propaganda Fide and Its Precursors The pontifical congregation of the Propaganda Fide (which still exists under the name of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) was the juris- dictional organization of the Roman Curia which directed, coordinated, and oversaw the Catholic Church’s missionary activities. It was founded on 6 Janu- ary 1622 by Pope Gregory xv and, like all the other pontifical dicasteries, count- ed a certain number of cardinals amongst its members, alongside prelates and a secretary. Initially, there were thirteen cardinals in total, but this increased over time. The Propaganda concerned itself with all aspects of the propagation of the faith through missions to the Protestant “heretics,” the “schismatic” Or- thodox, and to all the other parts of the world inhabited by pagans or infidels. Moreover, the Congregation was further tasked, to defend the faith amongst minority Catholic communities in non-Catholic territories, for example Cath- olics living in Islamic countries, again by means of the mission and preaching. This obligation held irrespective of whether the Catholics were of the Latin or Orthodox rite and was based only on the question of whether they were united with Rome and thus obedient to papal authority. The Propaganda Fide’s foundation represented the culmination of a broad and continuous project to reinstate the papacy’s universal spiritual primacy. This project acquired a much broader scope from the early 17th century on- wards, when the papacy’s missionary activities expanded on a global scale. In order to achieve its goals, the Propaganda’s activities consisted of solving juris- dictional issues, the negotium propagationis fidei or the work of the propagation of the faith, coordinated through a bureaucratic practice exercised by its member cardinals and coordinated by the secretary.1 1 For a general history of the Propaganda, see Josef Metzler (ed.), Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide memoria rerum, 5 vols. (Rome: 1971–76), esp. vol. i:1: 1622–1700, 79–111 (Met- zler, “Foundation of the Congregation ‘de Propaganda Fide’ by Gregory xv”) and Giovanni Pizzorusso, Governare le missioni, conoscere il mondo nel xvii secolo: La Congregazione © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, �� | doi:10.1163/9789004415447_0�8 420 Pizzorusso Cardinals’ activities in implementing papal missionary politics long preced- ed the Propaganda’s foundation. A number of initiatives to form commissions of cardinals that dealt with either certain aspects or the whole issue of propa- gating the Catholic faith had already been taken in the 16th century. For example, Pius v created a congregation for the conversion of unbelievers in 1568, which comprised cardinals Alessandro Crivelli, Marcantonio da Mula, Gug- lielmo Sirleto, and Antonio Carafa. This commission proved short-lived be- cause Philip ii of Spain did not appreciate papal interference in his American territories. However, that same year, Pius also established a further congregation for the conversion of heretics: the Congregazione Germanica, which brought together Otto Truchsess von Waldburg, Philibert Babou de la Bourda- sière, Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, and Giovanni Francesco Commendone. Gregory xiii later confirmed this congregation and added imperial cardinals such as Mark Sittich von Hohenems, Cristoforo and Ludovico Madruzzo, and Stanislaus Hosius to its ranks (see Bettina Braun’s contribution in this volume), as well as members of the Jesuit Order, specifically Peter Canisius. Finally, a congregation for the Greek Rite was founded during Gregory’s pontificate, first in Italy and then in the Middle East, aiming at missionary activities in the Or- thodox world. This approach of creating specific congregations to deal with particular geographical regions was typical of this period – at the time of Sixtus v’s curial reforms in 1588 a pontifical commission for the broader issue of the mission was not yet envisaged. It was not until 1599, under Clement viii, that Cardinal Santori formed a congregation de fide propaganda. This time no geographical boundaries limited the congregation’s remit and, in this respect, it can be seen as a forerunner of the Propaganda Fide. Important cardinals such as Alessan- dro de’ Medici, Robert Bellarmine, Federico Borromeo, Alfonso Visconti, Cinzio Aldobrandini (the pope’s nephew), and Giovanni Francesco Biandrate di San Giorgio were now assigned to this commission, which indicates that Clement Pontificia de Propaganda Fide (Viterbo: 2018). See also Pizzorusso, “The Congregation ‘de Pro- paganda Fide’ and Pontifical Jurisdiction over non-Tridentine Church,” in Trent and Beyond: The Council, Other Powers, Other Cultures, eds. Michela Catto and Adriano Prosperi (Turn- hout: 2017), 423–41; monographic studies or inventories of documents on Propaganda are useful for a description of the Congregation and its functioning, e.g. Nicola Kowalsky and Josef Metzler, Inventory of the Historical Archives of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangeli- zation of Peoples or “De Propaganda Fide” (Rome: 1988); Luca Codignola, Guide to Documents Relating to French and British North America in the Archives of the Sacred Congregation “de Propaganda Fide” in Rome, 1622–1799 (Ottawa: 1990); Codignola, The Coldest Harbour of the Land: Simon Stock and Lord Baltimore’s Colony in Newfoundland, 1621–1649 (Montreal: 1988) and Tara Alberts, Conflict and Conversion: Catholicism in Southeast Asia, 1500–1700 (Oxford: 2013). <UN>.

Load more