How Missions are Governed

New Zealand Tablet, 21 August 1913, Page 51

How Missions are Governed

Bishop Le Roy, the Superior-General of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost, has recently defined, in the Echo from • Africa , some of the terms used in missionary literature and, explained how missions are governed: f A mission,’ he points out, ‘in the sense in which we here use it, is an apostolate undertaken by a special band of missionaries in a limited area not already occupied, or in a vicariate or diocese of which they themselves have not charge. The heads of such missions bear the title of Superior, till, in the event of the work prospering, they are raised to the rank of Prefectures Apostolic and then to Vicariates, and so come under the organisation of the Catholic Hierarchy. The Pre feature Apostolic is the first independent centre of Catholic activity; the Prefect, nominated by Propaganda, is merely a priest invested with special powers, Superior of the rest, and receiving his instructions , direct from. Propaganda if a secular, or through his SuperiorGeneral if he be a member of a religious Order. He also is often delegated with the power of administering Confirmation.’ The function of a Vicar Apostolic is much more complex. The Vicar Apostolic is, in fact, a Bishop who represents the Holy See, and is deputed by the Pope to reside in pagan countries with the special mission of founding new churches. From early times power has been given to Vicars Apostolic to decide ecclesiastical questions for the Holy See. They have to propagate the faith within the territory assigned to them, and may - not absent themselves from their mission without' grave reasons, not being allowed to go even to Rome, except by special permission from the Prefect of Propaganda from whom they receive their jurisdiction. They are given an episcopal title derived from a See now abandoned, or one that is held by non-Christian powers, most of these titular Sees being in the Turkish Empire. The Vicar Apostolic, however, cannot nominate a Chapter and Vicar-General, though he enjoys all other episcopal privileges, the actual difference between him and a Diocesan Bishop being that while the latter has ordinary jurisdiction in his own diocese, the former holds his jurisdiction from Propaganda. When the faith seems likely to flourish by the aid of native clergy, the full Hierarchy is established in the country.