The fate of the system of Commission on missions «apud infideles» according to the canonical norms

Abstract

The Code of Canon Law of 1917 established special norms for the government of vicarious missions, which were entrusted to an ecclesiastical Superior, vicar of the Roman Pontiff, but the missionaries belonged to a religious institute, which was the cause of conflicts between ecclesiastical and religious Superiors. In order to solve theses issues, the instruction Quum huic was issued, which affirmed that the mission was entrusted to the Ecclesiastical Superior and that the commission to the Institute was a collaboration in the missionary activity. The II Vatican Council recognized the autonomy of the Institutes for the internal regime and the subjection to the Bishop in the apostolate, which Paul VI also applied to the territories of mission. The present Code has equated the particular mission churches with the dioceses, eliminating the special norms, and has expressly established that the missions are entrusted to the ecclesiastical Superior and that the collaboration of the religious Institutes and missionaries is carried out by means of agreements between both parties, as in the dioceses, so that the system of commission and the intervention of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.