The College of the Propaganda.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 7 August 1902, Page 27

The College of the Propaganda.

Tho Popes as successors to St. Peter's supreme charge of the fold of Our Lord (says the New York ' Freeman's Journal '), have always s>ought to enlarge its boundaries' and to bring into it all the stray sheep willing to follow His voice tqi the refuge pro\ ideci for them, His holy Church.

The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide is the modern niorm-> ment to their solicitude for the propagation of tho faith and the preservation of the peoples from heresy Piope Gregory XIII., in 1572, deputed Cardinals Caraffa, Medici and Santorio to gi\o special attention, to tho propagation and maintenance) of the faith among the Maromtes Slavs, Greeks, and Egyptians He also established the Greek andl English Colleges, and he deserves tho credit of placing- on a sound basis' tho important Oernian-Hiuig^rian College , and to give an idea "of tho value of money in these days wo may mention that Popo Gregory XII F ga-\ c an annual revenue of 10,000 dollars as enough for the maintenance of 160 ,\outiis.

Popo Girgovy XV. founded the Colk'KO of the Piopiat-.inda m 1G22, reserwng to this congregation thej right of sending missionaries for thd propagation of the faith The following \eur the Tope subletted all 1 tho colleges which had been or should bo established for the spread of tho faith to the Propaganda. But his death prevented his designs, an,d his .successor, Urban VIII., carried out and extended them by gathering in one. coUeg-e youths from Ohe variouscountries of the East to prepare; them for the priesthood that on their return homo they might spread tho light among their"countrytnen It would be impossible in a short l sketch of this kind to state fully all! tho countries under the jurisdiction of the Propaganda. It has chargo

of, in Europe, a great part of Germany, Turkey, Greece, the Daniuibian principalities, Great Britain and Irei land, Holland, Switzerland, etc., etc. ; almost all Asia, including) China, Japan, the East Indies, Corea, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, etc., otc. ; almost all Africa, including! Abyssinia, Egypt, the Congo territories, Monoccoi, Tripoli, Tunis, Capd of Good Hope, and other British provinces, etc. , in America, tho United States, almost all the Unit-* ish pnorvinces of North and South America, etc., etc. , tho whole of Oceanica, with Auatrajia aral ait tho British colonies, etc.

The congregation actually coiiMstsi of 28 Cardinals, one with the title; of Cardinal-Prefect, with a prelate as secretary, and about 22 consultors. There is a special committee of Cardinals appointed for the temporary administration, also a special) sub-congregation for Oriental affairs^ and there were at special periods, sub-congregations appointed for the rarious countries — thus, by Alexander X|II. one was appointed for China. There are about six minutanti, or sub-secretaries for the various parts of the world with a largo number of assistants.

The college was at first called' Collegium de Propaganda Fide per Universum Orbern.' The edifice occupied" by the congregation and the college is quite imposing, occupying an ir-> regular quadrolaterial m the shapeof a trapeze. It fronts on tho Piazza di Spagna, whilst the rear is, opposite to the Church of St. Andrea Delle Fratte.

The college entrance on Via Frattina is from the designs of Borrornini, who also planned, by the order of Alexander VII., the church known as the Epiphany, uaider the invocation of the Holy Magi. Opposite tho Church of Sant' Andrea is the celebrated Polyglot printing press^ with its facilities of printing- in every known language, and bo useful for the spread of theological learning) through its many missions

Its library, once famous, was appropriated by the Fnencli at the close of the seventeenth iniliirv : today, whilst ha\ing a lespectable number of rare books, it is Quito extensive, having about 50,000 volumes, many of them \oiy rare 1 works principally for the use of the students. The Borgian museum contains manuscripts of importance in, Arabic, Syriac, Chaldaic. Armenian « Turkish, Indian (on palm lea\cs), Hebrew, Ethiopian, Greek, Latin, Italian, etc.

It contains the celebrated map on, which Popo Alexander VJ . to settlq tho controversy between Spain and Portugal, made t lie lines of division to separate their se'^eral possessions^ and many curiosities connected with tho various missionary countries There are in the College of the Propaganda about two hundred students, speaking nearly e'\ cry language.