the Jews, and its energy in the free distribution of Hebrew New
Testaments. Converted Jews are commonly supposed to be
very few, and in numbers they do not compare with
converted heathen; but they are more numerous than
5. Missions to the Jews.
is usually imagined, especially if the second and
third generations of Christians of Hebrew race are included. A
number of them find in Unitarianism a form of Christianity
that appeals to them. It is estimated that 250 Anglican clergymen
are converted Jews or the sons of converted Jews. The
London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews
includes among its missionaries about 80 who are converts.
Professor Delitzsch estimated that 100,000 Jews had embraced
Christianity in the first three quarters of the 19th century; and
Dr Dalman of Leipzig says that “if all those who have entered
the Church and their descendants had remained together,
instead of losing themselves among the other peoples, there
would now be a believing Israel to be counted by millions,
and no one would have ventured to speak of the uselessness of
preaching the Gospel to the Jews.”
Interesting as is the story of Protestant mission work in Austria, Spain, Italy and Russia, it does not fall within the scope of this article. Nor do the proselytizing enterprises of Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, Mormons and other American bodies rightly find a place here.
Roman Catholic Missions.—At the beginning of the 19th century the Roman Communion seems to have shared to some extent in the torpor and stagnation as regards missions that characterized the Protestant churches. There was little of the zeal which had carried the Franciscans all over Asia in the 13th century, and the Jesuits to South America, India and Japan in the 16th. But the 19th century witnessed a great change, and Roman Catholic missions have been extended pari passu with Protestant. The revival was not a little due to the foundation in 1822, by a few earnest but (as they called themselves) “humble and obscure” Catholics at Lyons, of a new voluntary society, called the Institution for the Propagation of the Faith. It collected in its first year about £2000 from the shopkeepers and artisans of Lyons. Thirty years later its income was £200,000 a year; and now it is £300,000. It has sent out no missionaries of its own. It merely makes grants to the various missionary parties sent forth, and it has done much in this direction. Roman missions are carried on both by missionary societies and by religious orders, all under the supreme direction of the pope, and also more or less under the general supervision of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide at Rome since its foundation by Gregory XV. in 1622. This important congregation has been described as corresponding pretty much in the Catholic Church to the colonial office in the British empire, and its head, the “Prefect of Propaganda,” to the secretary of state for the colonies. It holds supreme control over all the foreign missions in heathen countries, and also over large and important parts of the church in Christian countries whose governments are not Catholic—including the British empire, the United States, Holland, the Norse kingdoms, Greece, and some parts of Germany and Switzerland. A special section (erected by Pius IX.) has charge of the affairs of all the Oriental rites in union with the Roman see. Confining our attention at present to the missions strictly understood under “foreign,” i.e. to heathen or non-Christian countries, we shall find the whole of these parts of the globe carefully mapped and parcelled out by propaganda to a variety of missionary agencies or religious orders. The government of the various mission fields is generally carried on by “Vicars-Apostolic” (i.e. titular bishops acting as vicars or delegates of the Apostolic see) or “Prefects-Apostolic” (i.e. priests with similar powers, but without episcopal rank). In some few cases (notably India and Japan) a regular territorial hierarchy has been established, just as in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Of the religious societies engaged in the evangelization of these many fields of labour, some have been established exclusively for foreign missionary work among the heathen—notably the famous Société des Missions Etrangéres of Paris, the oldest and greatest of all (dating from 1658, and consisting of 34 bishops, 1200 European missionaries and 700 native priests); the German “Society of the Divine Word,” whose headquarters are at Steyl in Holland; the Belgian Society of Scheat; the celebrated French Society of the “White Fathers,” founded by the late Cardinal Lavigerie for African missions; the English Society of St Joseph, founded at Mill Hill by Cardinal Vaughan; and some others. The other missions are entrusted to the care of various religious orders and congregations, which take up foreign missionary work in addition to their labours in Christian countries. Such are the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Lazarists, Augustinians, Marists, &c. Besides the above orders of priests, an immense number of religious societies of women are engaged in works of education and charity throughout the whole of the foreign mission field. These have been reckoned at about 42,000 European and 10,000 native sisters. Again, there are some 20 congregations of “Brothers” (not priests) engaged in teaching, and numbering some 4500 members.
By far the greater part of the Roman missionary work is done by France. The majority of the missionaries are French (over 7000); the bulk of the money—so far as it is voluntary contribution (but the propaganda at Rome has large endowments)—is raised in France. The French government, anticlerical as it is at home, is the watchful and strenuous protector of the missions abroad; and it is evident that not a little political influence in foreign countries is gained thereby. L’Année de l’Eglise, in reporting on the missions in all parts of the world, dwells continually on this with satisfaction. Protestant missionaries are opposed, not merely because they are heretical, but because they are English or (if American) English-speaking; and the Greek Church missionaries in Persia and Japan, not only because they are schismatic, but because they are Russian—the Franco-Russian alliance notwithstanding. This is a feature in French Catholic missions which cannot be overlooked in the briefest account of them.
The following list shows the principal foreign Roman Catholic missionary societies and their fields of work:—
| I. | Société des Missions Étrangéres (Paris, 1658).—Missions: Manchuria, Korea, Tibet, Japan, China (Sze-Chuen, Kui-Chow, Kwang-tong, Yunnan), Indo-China (W., S. and Upper Tongking, E., W. and N. Cochin-China; Cambodia, Siam), Malay Peninsula, Burma (S. and N.), S. India (dioceses of Pondicherry, Kombakonam, Mysore, Coimbatore). |
| II. | Society of “White Fathers” (founded by Cardinal Lavigerie, 1868).—Missions: Algeria, Sahara, Nyasa, Victoria Nyanza, Tanganyika, Unyanyembe, Upper Congo. |
| III. | Lyons Seminary for Foreign Missions (1856). Missions: Nile Delta, Benin, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Dahomey, Upper Niger. |
| IV. | Congregation of the Holy Ghost (1703 and 1848).-Missions: Senegambia, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Lower Niger, Gaboon, French Congo, Lower Congo, Mayotte, Nossibé and Comoro Islands. |
| V. | Milan Seminary for Foreign Missions (1850).—Missions: China (Hong Kong, N. and S. Ho-nan), East Burma, India (dioceses of Kishnagar and Haidarabad). |
| VI. | Steyl Society of Foreign Missions (German, 1875).—Missions: S. Shan-tung, China; Togo, W. Africa. |
| VII. | Scheat Society of Foreign Missions (Belgian, 1863):—Missions: Mongolia, Kang-Su (China), Belgian Congo. |
| VIII. | Picputian Society[1] (Paris, 1817).—Missions: Hawaii, Tahiti, Marquesas Islands. |
| IX. | Mill Hill Society (English, 1866).—Missions: N. Borneo and Labuan; N. Punjab, Kashmir and Ladak; Telugu missions of Madras; Maori missions of N. New Zealand; N. Uganda. |
| X. | Congregation of the Sacred Heart (Issoudun, France, 1855).—Missions: New Guinea, New Pomerania, Gilbert Islands. |
| XI. | Society of the Divine Saviour (Rome, 1881).—Mission: Assam. |
| XII. | Verona Society for African Missions.—Mission: The Sudan, Upper Egypt. |
| The following societies are engaged in home as well as foreign missions:— | |
| XIII. | Marists (French, 1816).—Missions: Fiji, Navigator’s Island, New Caledonia, Central Oceania, Solomon Islands, parts of New Zealand (dioceses of Wellington and Christchurch). |
- ↑ Father Damien belonged to this society, which takes its popular name from the Rue de Picpus, Paris.
