Note 17 — Chapter VI

The Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, one of the “sacred congregations” of the Catholic Church, was founded in 1622, by Pope Gregory XV, conferring upon it most ample powers for the propagation of the faith, and especially for the superintendence of missions in countries where heretics or infidels had to be evangelized. The jurisdiction proper of the congregation extends to all territories which are governed more missionum, or as missionary countries—not by the bishops of the regular hierarchy, but by prefects and vicars apostolic. It has, moreover, legislative and judicial power. See Hoffmanns’ Catholic Directory, 1896, p. 48.