The Congregation has long owned and managed a printing-press that is on account of the many kinds of type it possesses for the Oriental In the last two centuries a multitude of Orioalal texts have COIlle from its ollices litcer •ical. literary. theological, patristie. Iiistorieo-religions. There is perhaps nowhere else in the world an Oriental printing-press so well equipped and so scientifically conducted. It issues regularly a catalogue of its publica tions. and is officially known as the St a 1,1 peria dc Propaganda Plde.
The Com.rc•gatinn of the Propaganda governs all Catholic missions to the general law of the Chnivh. the decrees of the C?1111ell of Trent. the deei,ion, of other Roman Con.rega tions. the Papal rescripts. and the conviliar legis lation. Butt, over and above the ordinary law there is a certain amount of speeial legislation for the missions and missionaries. As early as 1669 the Propaganda issued its Advice to Mis sionaries, that has been lately reprinted (Manita ad Missionarios, Rome, 1ST-1). The details of its extensive legislation are to be found in the col lection of its document known as the Eithamiuri of the Congregation (Rome. since l539.5 vols.. folio; with an index, 1858). -knottier collection is that of Raphael de ..Martints (7 vols.. folio. Rome, 1889-1900). The particular legislation of the Propaganda afTeeting the Oriental missions is found in the work entitled Collecianca Con stilutiouum, etc. (Paris. 1880), and in the Ap paratus Juris Fwicsiastici of Zsphylin Rome, Occasionally the Congregation issues a legislation that modifies the regular canonical procedure in justice; e.g. in the trial of matrimonial eases, clerical (tenets. and other judicial processes. Such documents then become norms of ecclesiastical government in the land for which they are issued. The current public documents of the Congregation may be easily found in the Roman canon law periodical entitled Aeta ,8,tuetce Seclis, and those of the Pope in the annual series of Pontifical documents respect ively known as Acta I'll IX., Acta Leonis .V111.. etc.
Usually the establishment of a remote and difficult mission begins with the sending of a Pre fect Apostolic by the Pope, at the suggestion of the Congregation of the Propaganda. As a rule this missionary is only a priest, but lie receives certain special authorizations from the lloly e.g. the right to administer confirmation. As soon as the conditions of the mission warrant. a vicar apostolic is appointed to take charge of its interests. Such a missionary is made a titular bishop: i.e. he is given the 'title' of some see, extinct or suppressed. No specific seat of resi dence is fixed for him: he the mi-sion as best lie can. In time sees are established with territorial limits. and canonical obligation of residence for the bishop; thus a gua-i-hermal condition arises in which the administration of spiritual atTairs gradually grows quite like that of the older Catholic States of Europe, and the regular ecclesiastical law tend, to obtain as against the temporary and opportunist adminis tration of an earlier date. Nevertheless, for vali Mrs reasons, the 1101y See often continues to gov ern such well-developed churches through the Congregation of the Propaganda, instead of in corporating them in the ordinary system of its administration. The Propaganda is thus one of
the busiest of the Roman congregations. There come before it all questions that arise in 'mission ary lands' concerning the creation of dioceses. their dismeinherinent, division. minion. and trans formation: the nominations to Id-14)p! office: the relations. in last resort, of hishop and clergy; all questions between bishops religious der:. and between orders themselves in matters of their mission work: the diseipline and super vision of national missionary college,. theolfigieal seminaries in missionary lands: the regular re ports of its bkhons, their special needs or and similar things. It is in elms,' contact with all other Roman congregations. to wh:eli it as a kind of elearinY-house for the missions and missionaries. Its juridical decisions are final. authoritative, and reversible only by the l'ope. to whom they are always submitted beforehand when the _gravity of the ()evasion or the nature of the problem in question warrant,. The Con gregation has a permanent secretary, generally an archbishop, who goes weekly to the Vatican with the proceedings of the Congregation, to sub mit them to the aliproval of the• Pope and give such explanations as are needed. This office is looked Oil as i.e. as leading di rectly to the dignity of eardinal—hence it is al ways tilled by an ecclesiastic of learning and ex per•ieacc.
A large and valuable library is connected with the Congregation, for its own use, and for• the needs of the college and the printing-press, It is especially rich in ancient theology and philos ophy, and in all kinds of Orientalia, both printed and manuscript. It is accessible to students and writers. 'The archives of the Congregation are kept with care, and are of great value for the ecclesiastical and civil history of the missionary lands. They are partially accessible under• cer tain conditions, and are now being used by his torians of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eigh teenth centuries, especially for the period of the Counter-lleformation in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Besides the institutions described, the Propa ganda possesses a valuable museum, called the Borgia') Museum, after a former Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal Stephen Borgia, who was its principal benefactor in the latter half of the eighteenth century. This museum contains nu merous rare and ancient charts and maps of the missionary lands, curios of all kinds, coins, docu ments. and relics, that are often useful for pur poses of archeology or ethnology. Many valuable manuscripts, especially Coptic and Arabic. are kept there. Since 1882 the Congregation has recommended to its missionaries, in a very spe cial way, the interests of the museum.
Until 1862 the affairs of all the missionary churehes. East and W est. were treated in one and the same Congregation of the Propaganda. In that year Pins IN established a special sec tion of the Congregation for the administration of the Oriental churches (Sacra Congregatio yrro Negotiis Ritus Oriental's). It has its own chief, Cardinalk. and its own officials and counselors. To each curial (resident) cardinal of this section is allotted the conduct of the re ligious affairs of some one of the Oriental rites united with the Iloly See; he is called the Car dinalis Relator,