Catholic Missions at XIXe and the XXe centuries

catholic missions with XIXe and XXe centuries or " pontifical missions (2nd part) "

This article is the fourth of a whole concerning the expansion and the diffusion of the Christianity, which includes/understands:

Expansion of the Christianity of Ve century in XVe century.
catholic Missions in XVIe and XVIIe centuries.
catholic Missions of 1622 at the end of the XVIIIe century or pontifical missions (1st part) " .
catholic Missions with XIXe and the XXe centuries or pontifical missions (2nd part) " .
History of the Protestant missions

In the history of the catholic missions, after one period of backward flow observed at the end of the 19th century, one sees appearing a vague missionary who is born in France before extending to the close catholic countries. So from with dimensions this dash missionary comes out from the vagueness of the European expansion which will be also exprimerara by the Colonialisme, it is right to specify that the missions are rather in phase lead compared to colonization and they survive the Décolonisation. As a movement missionary simultaneously appeared at the Protestant , the competition between catholics and Protestants is a characteristic of the period. The Oceania and the Africa will be the grounds of missions especially concerned, but the christianization of a country like the Korea, remained in-outside process of European colonization also fits in this period.

Chronological reference marks

1742 Benoit XIV, bubble Ex quo singulari which puts an end to the quarrel rites.
1773 Removal of the Jesuits by Clement XIV
1814 Re-establishment of the Jesuits.
1822 Foundation in Lyon of the work of the Propagation of the faith
1845 Encyclical Neminem Perfecto on the formation of the local clergy. (Gregoire XVI)
1872 Foundation of the white Fathers, first White fathers in the Sahara (Laghouat)
1878 Departure of a caravan of Missionaries towards the Bouganda and the Tanganyika.
1886 Martyr of the Christians of the Maximum Uganda
1919 Encyclical illud (Benoit XV)
1926 Encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae (Black and white XI)
1951 Encyclical Evangelii Praecones on the autonomy of the local Churches (Pie XII)

The situation of the catholic missions at the end of the XVIIIe century

Before the time of the great discoveries, the expansion of Christianity remained blocked in the south and the east of the Mediterranean by a Muslim world which will pass mainly under Turkish domination and which remains impermeable with the diffusion of Christianity. The missions of Guillaume de Rubrouck and Jean de Montecorvino are makings of contact with the world of the steppes and the Far East, but remain without a future because of the difficulty of the communications.

The data are changed starting from the discovery of the New World and the European expansion dominated at its beginnings by Portugal and Spain. By the Treated of Tordesillas in 1494, the the Holy See officially sub-contracted pastoral work, i.e. evangelization of the regions lately discovered with the Portuguese and Spanish sovereigns in their respective zones of influence. It was the system of the employers which became exhausted dice the end of the 16th century with the decline of Portugal. The catholic restoration impelled by the Concile of Thirty (1542-1560) implied on its side a resumption in hand of work missionary by the Holy See. The creation of the Jesuits, in 1540, made it possible many Italian and French priests to reinforce the Portuguese and the Spaniards. They invented original forms of the apostolate missionary, thus beginning within the Church the debate known under the name of Querelle of the Rites

The rupture with the system of employers is specified with the creation of the congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith created in the Vatican even to supervise the missionaries of all the countries and to organize the formation of local churches in the countries which sheltered new catholic communities. The foundation in 1658 of the company of the Foreign missions of Paris mark the assertion of France in the catholic world.

In spite of their strength, the catholic missions are not major success in-outside countries under Spanish domination. In second half of the 18th century, a series of events will mark their decline:

the bubble Ex quo singulari by which the pope Benoît XIV repudiates the Jesuits in the Querelle of the Rites
the removal of the Jesuits in 1773
the French revolution, as from 1789, which completely will drain the French seminars.

The dash French missionary at the beginning of the XIXe century

The French revolution had emptied the seminars, and consequently, had completely dried up the sources of missionaries. The restarting will be slow, but one will see appearing a true passion for the missionary cause which will make to France the principal provider of the catholic missions. The Jésuites are restored in 1814, but never more they will become again the force major missionary only they had been with 17th and 18th centuries. The seminar of the '' foreign missions '' of the street of the Vat, in Paris reopens its doors only in 1815, and the restarting of the departures on mission is done slowly: a priest in 1816, two in 1817, two, four, six years following. The system of financing of the missions is completely renewed: under the Old Mode, the financing came from various ecclesiastical properties and foundations which had been confiscated under the Révolution. The work of the Propagation of the faith is founded in Lyon in 1822. In the beginning, there was the stay in London, during the Emigration of the new superior of the seminar of the foreign missions , M.Chaumont which had observed the methods " démocratiques" anabaptists based on the creation of auxiliary companies which managed to drain a multiplicity of " small dons". A contact is established then between Chaumont and Philas Jaricot , a seminarist who dreamed to leave for China. The sister of this last, Pauline Jaricot will become the best zealot of the Propagation of the faith . Lyon will be, at the 19th century, the capital of the missions. Like Jean Guennou notes it, “for the first time, in the history of the Catholic church, the combat missionary whose echo arrived to the least village, became the business of all and each one…” the bulletin of work, Annals of the Propagation of the faith car to 10000 specimens in 1825, and 40000 a little later. It is a very important figure for the time. About all the bishops establish work in their dioceses. Following the Propagation of the faith , multiple works are created, with a similar orientation. This popular passion creates a favorable climate with the vocations missionaries which profit from an unceasingly increased number of new congregations completely or partially dedicated to the missions: Picpuciens (1800), the Marists (1815), the Oblats of Marie-Immaculate (1816), the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (1848), the African Missions of Lyon (1856), Missionaries of Notre-Dame of Africa - or Fathers White (1868)

The dash missionary in the world and the bubble Nemimen Profecto

If France keeps the place of great catholic mission and missionary during at least a century and half, the dash missionary which started in France at the beginning of the 19th century also touches the catholic rest of the world. Religious congregations whose members work at least partly in territory of mission are created in Italy: Salésiens of Jean Bosco, (1846), Foreign missions of Milan (1850), Comboniens de Vérone (1850), in Belgium: Scheutistes (1860), in Germany: the company of the Divine Verb (1877)…

Great innovation of the 19th century, of the female orders with orientations more or less missionaries are also created. As for the men, France is largely at the head: on some two hundred congregations created between 1814 and 1924, fifty-nine are it in France, twenty-six to the United States, eighteen in Italy, seventeen in Germany, sixteen in Canada, fifteen in Holland, eleven in Belgium.

At the top of the Church, the dash missionary of the 19th century is concretized by the accession with the papacy of a former prefect of Propaganda, Gregoire XVI. This last publishes the encyclical Neminem Profecto which is after the Instructions of Propaganda of 1659 the second large text missionary. The text insists again on the need for forming a local clergy. In fact, the principle is not any more one subject of debate in the Church, the Foreign missions , for example, did not await the encyclical to create nineteen seminars in the world (1845), that is to say for six missionaries. One finds in a durable way in the Catholic church, the problem of the level requested from the local clergy which is the same one as that of the European clergy, which includes/understands the training of Latin. The candidate with the priesthood of Kerala or the Samoa islands must count fifteen years of studies before being ordered. He results from it an extremely weak output between the entry with the seminar and the exit, almost everywhere lower than one on twenty. Fortunately for the missions, the sisters do not have to undergo such a handicap. The female orders recruit much more easily, supporting the anchoring of the new religion in the population.

Missions in Oceania and in Madagascar

It is in Louisiana and Oceania that the heats of the new French missionaries are requested initially. The father Pierre Coudrin, founder about Picpus in 1800 offers his services in 1824 to the congregation of Propaganda. The cardinal della Somaglia indicates the Sandwich islands to him where two years three picpucians unload later of which one has the apostolic title of vicar. It is that Oceania started to be canvassed by Protestant rivals. The competition is difficult. The picpucians are rejected first island where they had unloaded. One will need the intervention of the French navy, in 1839 to restore freedom of worship in the Sandwich islands.

Eastern Oceania had been entrusted to the picpucians, it is to the Marists that Gregoire XVI entrusts Western Oceania as from 1833. The Lyons missionaries must face at the same time the cannibals and the Protestants. The competition is hard: put in difficulty by the cannibals at the Gambier islands, rejected of Tahiti by the Protestants in 1836, the catholics manage to take foot at Maoris of New Zealand (1838), with Wallis (1840), in islands Samoa, etc When the Gaudet Marist arrives at the New Hebrides, in 1887, the presbytériens, alerted, unload in their turn. The father Pompallier, Marist is the first apostolic vicar of Western Oceania. The pedagogy missionary which it tried to develop in direction of Maoris of New Zealand can be expressed as follows:

Respect of the indigenous habits
gradual Exposure of morals and the Christian doctrines
progressive Teaching to prepare the catechumens.
Of the catechists completes the work of conversion.

Francoise Perroton, a former dizainière of Pauline Jaricot is the first woman missionary. In 1846, It unloads in Wallis, 50 years old, under the name of Sœur Marie of the Mount-Carmel. They are only 12 years later that it will receive, with Futuna, the reinforcement of 3 new partners.

The queen Ranavalona had prohibited the access of Madagascar the abroads, but in 1853,3 French had obtained to found a development company. The Father Marc Finaz arrives, disguised, to Madagascar in 1855 and binds friendship with the crown prince Rakoto Kakoto, who, in liaison with the Jesuits of Bourbon, is favorable to the catholics. In 1861 Rakoto succeeds his/her mother and authorizes the priests and pastors to preach the Christian religion.

The competition of the Protestants

It was seen how, in Oceania, the catholic missionaries had had to face Protestant competition. However, Oceania is not a particular case, as from the 19th century, the catholic missions must face Protestant competition. One will refer to the article the Histoire of the Protestant to include/understand political reasons and theological missions Protestants in the step missionary. One can mention here two reasons which explain why the Protestants are quite present starting from the end of the 18th century:

In fact Protestant nations, Holland and England hold the sea and which became consequently the dominant European powers of the remote regions.
It developed a movement Protestant missionary, symbolized by the publication into 1792 of a Étude on the obligation for the Christians to take measures for the conversion of pagan the , of William Carey, cobbler and preacher Baptist who became missionary in India.

The catholic encyclopedia of 1907 thus described progress of the Protestant missions in India: " to summarize the Protestant progression, let us say that in 1830, one found on the ground only nine organizations Protestant missionaries, with roughly 27000 indigenous Protestants originating in India, Burma and Ceylon. In 1870, there was not less than 35 Protestant organizations, which framed the manpower estimated at 318.363 faithful. In 1852, there were 459 Protestant missionaries, and in 1872, there were 606 of them. Here what characterizes work protesting missionary:

To spread the Writings in the vernacular languages.
special Efforts with respect to the instruction of the women.
generalized Use of the indigenous missionaries, not only of the ordered pastors, but of simple preachers, men or women…

… it should well be seen that on a side most of our catholic energy is absorbed by the assumption of responsibility of the stable and hereditary catholic populations, whereas works Protestant missionaries, of origin much more recent, not having any heritage to manage are much more available to progress on new grounds, where they can hope to have the maximum of success. It is only after the phase pionnière will be completed, that the Protestant converts will be established in hereditary Christian communities that the quantified comparison of the progressions will be equitable. "

Competition, one sees it is not accepted of gaîté of heart. Horace Underwood, was a protesting missionary made at Seoul in 1885. Here the description which it makes of the catholic seminar of Seoul in the years which followed its creation, in 1891:

" the complete course of the Seminar is divided into three parts: the preparatory course, the school of Latin and the seminar itself. The apparent objective from the 4 to 6 of preparatory course was to mitigate the gaps of mainstream education. It was followed by 6 years of teaching of Latin during which, at the same time as an mainstream education, the stress was laid on Latin as a tool for the theological studies to come. The Latin course was followed of another six year old section, the seminar, strictly speaking, with two years of general philosophy and four years of theology. It is obvious that the candidate who arrived at the end of this difficult course could be only one much better servant of the Church than Korean Pasteur protesting. "

The competition of the Protestants is a recurrent theme in the correspondences of the missionaries. In the Apostolate in Africa , published in Quebec in 1911, it is noted in connection with a refuge intended for the women “fallen into Protestantism or Islamism”:

" … Pauvre woman had disavowed faith and joined Protestant. Ministers impose condition to insult Blessed Virgin… Me, that I insult my Mother? Never! You cannot be ours, said ministers… "

The case of the Korea

Korea deserves that attention there is paid: it is the only country of Asia which will mainly become Christian (or almost) without to have been, like the Filipino under domination of an European country.

At the end of the 18th century, whereas the country is jealously closed, of the well-read men benefit from a legation in Beijing to get the most books possible of science, literature, etc Of the Christian books fall to them between the hands. One of these well-read men, Nor-seung-houn undertakes the voyage to Beijing in 1784. It is baptized there under the name of Pierre. On its return, he baptizes his companions. Because of its origins, Korea is attached to the apostolic vicariate of Beijing until 1831. About the year 1794, a Chinese priest, the Father Jacques Tjyou, is sent in Korea. He finds approximately 4000 faithful there. Obeying the decision of the Pope of 1742, the Korean catholics refuse to take part in the worship of the ancestors, consequently of what, they are condemned to the imprisonment where with died by the royal government of Choson. One can distinguish 4 waves from persecution of 1785 to 1886. The two first, in 1801 (reign of Shinyu) and 1815 (reign of Eulhae) are particularly hard. More than 300 Christians are put at died during the persecution of 1801, and again several hundreds are massacred during the second wave, that of 1815, limited to the province of Kyungsang, in the south of the country. In 1839, the wave of persecution will be fatal to the three French missionaries lately made at the country, and to finish, persecutions begin again under the reign of Taewongun, of 1866 to 1871. Fortunately for the Korean catholics, a treaty with France in 1866 represents a turning in their history. One can say that it brings the religious liberty, even if the religious practice remains regulated.

The Chinese priest Jacques Tjyou had thus been victim of the vagueness of persecutions of 1801, and during thirty years, the Christian community, remained without priest resists and remains. In 1832, the Holy See names an apostolic vicar, Mgr Bruguiere, which tries to join Korea starting from Siam, while crossing China and Mongolia. It obtains a pass dies before to have achieved its goal. One of his/her companions, the Maubant father succeeds in crossing the Northern border in 1836. It is joined the following year by two other French, the Chasten Father, and a little later, by the new apostolic vicar, M^gr Imbert.

Persecution bursts in 1839, much of Christians is stopped, tortured and put at death. The missionaries are tracked. The three French priests are decapitated on September 21st, 1839. In 1845, a new bishop, Mgr Ironwood, are named and succeed in entering to Korea, accompanied by a young missionary and first Korean priest, André Kim, who had made his studies with Macao. André Kim is taken and carried out the following year. Missionaries continue nevertheless to be introduced into the country, clandestinely, generally by sea, transhipped, the night of a Chinese boat to a Korean boat. In spite of these difficulties, the mission thrives for this twenty years period. In 1866, one counts 25000 faithful, two bishops and ten missionaries.

At this point in time the last wave of persecution, to put on the account of the regent Tai-ouen-koun still breaks out, more terrible than the preceding ones: two bishops and seven missionaries being stopped and put at dead: a great number of faithful Korean also perish in this hecatomb, whereas others die of exhaustion and hunger in the mountain. Later, the regent will recognize his error.

The French forwarding of Kang-Hoa, for which the goal is to avenge the murder for the French missionaries is not led with sufficient strength and finally causes only to reactivate the persecution which lasts as a long time as the regent remained with the capacity. It is only into 1876 that missionaries are again introduced into the country. There are no more persecutions strictly speaking, but the missionaries are nevertheless obliged to remain in clandestinity. The total religious liberty takes effect only with the commercial treaty concluded with the various Powers around the year 1884. In 1876, there remained nothing any more but 10000 Christians. The number of the catholic progresses then regularly to reach 63000 in 1907.

The Church lives then with open sky: sisters of Saint-Paul of Chartres open orphanages. In each district, one builds vaults with residences for the missionaries. The church of Seoul which acts as cathedral is officially devoted in 1898. Parochial schools are opened, and even, in the great centers, some schools for the girls. The woman of the emperor and woman of the terrible regent is made baptize in 1896.

In 1907, manpower of the mission include/understand: 1 bishop, 46 French missionaries, 10 Korean priests, 11 French sisters, 41 Korean sisters, 72 schools of boys with 1014 pupils, 6 schools of girls with 191 pupils, 2 orphanages with 28 boys and 261 girls, 379 orphans placed in the families, 2 pharmacies, 1 seminar with 22 students of the first level and 9 students in theology, 48 Christian churches or vaults, 931 parishes, 63.340 baptized and 5503 catechumens in the course of instruction.

At the 20th century, the Catholic church continues to progress, but this progress remains poor if one compares them with those of the Protestants evangelic Churches , present in Korea since the 1885.

The colonial fact

Starting from the end of the 19th century, it is not possible any more to speak about the Christian missions without evoking European hegemony, major historical fact which resulted in the last wave of colonization, primarily English and French. The European powers which had taken a considerable lead in the field of science and technology, divided the islands of Oceania and most of Africa. During almost hundred years, colonization got to the missionaries a safety which gave access to them formerly unexplored and unknown areas. It is for the colonial period that the missions will garner the benefit of their painful beginnings of heroic times of first half of the 19th century.

Pie XII will point out it, in the encyclical Evangelii Praecones : in 1926 one counted 400 Missions; currently one counts 600 of them; then the catholics did not reach 15 million, today they are nearly 28.000.000. In this same year 1926, the priests, either come from outside, or very Missions, were 14.800; today, they are more than 26.800. At that time, almost all the pastors, mission leaders, were foreign; in 25 years, 88 of these Missions were entrusted to the indigenous clergy; and as in many places the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is already normally made up with bishops chosen among the inhabitants of the place

Jean Guénnou notes that many colonial administrations did not admit in fact, that missionaries of their own metropolis, which could create the idea of a collusion between Christianity and colonization. At the end of the 19th century, once France was essential on Madagascar, the French Jesuits are favoured with the detriment of the English and Norwegian Protestant missionaries. It is undoubtedly true in Africa, where one sees, for example, after the withdrawal of German of the colonies which they had lost at the conclusion of the First World War, a French clergy to replace a German clergy. It is not the case of the empire of the Indies, where the catholic missionaries are French than English and have only to rent reports/ratios which they maintain with the English administration.

There are however no only obviousnesses with this collusion between the missionaries and the colonizers: under the third republic, the French capacity is not particularly favorable to the Church, and the colonial administrators are often freemasons. That does not prevent Paul Bert from declaring in 1905, whereas the anticlericalism makes rage in metropolis: the anticlericalism is not an article of export . With Wallis, in Oceania, in 1920, the missions are seen of granting the monopoly of teaching. Enough often, the administration sub-contracted the social one, education and health, which one now calls the development, with the missions, a little in the same way, could one say, which nowadays the States of the rich countries sub-contract the development in ONG. In Algeria, since the beginnings of colonization, in 1830, in spite of a very theoretical proclamation of the religious liberty, the officers of the Arab Bureaux prohibited with the catholic clergy any contact with the Muslim populations, and it is only from 1867 that the Cardinal of Vigerie will initially make profitable the good relationships of the Church with Napoleon III, Mac-Mahon, then to authorize the development of certain congregations in-outside European mediums, without much success besides.

The movement of the missions had had a time in advance on colonization. The Church will be able to anticipate the decolonization. In the encyclical Evangelii Praecones , Pie XII indicates the way to be followed: and as in many places the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is already normally made up with Bishops chosen among the inhabitants of the place, it appears even more clearly than the religion of Jesus-Christ is really catholic and than she can be regarded as foreign in no point of the ground.

A little further, it invites the missionaries to pass the hand: it seems convenient to Us to note a point, which We consider worthy of attentive consideration when the Missions which were entrusted before to the foreign clergy become to the hands national Bishops and priests. The religious Institute whose members plowed at the price of their sweat the field of the Lord, when a decree of the Superior council of the Propagation of the Faith entrusts to other workmen the vine cultivated by them and already covered with fruits, does not have necessarily to give up it completely; but will be to make useful work and suitable to continue to help the new Bishop chosen in the people of the place. In the same way, indeed, as in all the other dioceses of the world, of the Monks help the local Bishop most of the time, in the same way in the areas of Missions, the Monks, although originating in another nation, will not cease carrying out the combat like auxiliary troops.

In fact, the careful attitude of the Church will be crowned success: in general, the movement of decolonization and the access to independence will not be accompanied by a reaction of rejection of the religion which could have been regarded as a nondesired heritage of the colonizers.

Beginnings of the evangelization of West Africa

The first attempts missionaries in Africa are former to the 19th century: Portuguese priests in the counters that those created on the African coasts as from the 15th century, delegation Jesuit, in 1556 at Négus d' Abyssinie, capuchins Italian envoys by Propaganda, between 1645 and 1692 near a king of Congo, dissident of the king of Portugal.

These old contacts should not mask the fact that until the 19th century, Europeans did not penetrate in the middle of the African continent which remains will terra incognita . The father Jacob Liebermann, Jew Alsatian convert with Catholicism, epileptic will create in 1841 an order missionary, the congregation of the Fathers of the Heart of Marie Immaculée whose main aim is the evangelization of Africa. The beginnings are difficult. September 26th, 1841, the father Jacques-Desired Laval unloads in Port-Louis (Mauritius) in the greatest indifference and receives the load of the Mission of the Blacks. In September 43, 7 fathers and 3 laic embark in Pauillac on board a sailing ship bound for the gulf of Guinea. One year later, fevers and shipwrecks had made their damage, two only are still alive. The disciples of the Libermann father had received rather severe directives Faites you negro with the negros, to form them as they owe the being, not the made-to-order of Europe, but leaving them what is clean for them . To live like the Africans, the Fathers had adopted a very ascetic rule of life, which was not inevitably very good for health. Another disciple of Liebermann, the Truffet father appointed bishop, does not resist more than seven months. Its successor softens the rule to lengthen the lifespan of the fathers.

Another French ecclesiastic, Melchior of Marion-Brésillac founds in 1856, an institute dedicated to Africa, the African Missions of Lyon. Propaganda entrusts the Sierra Leone to him, regarded as particularly unhealthy. This time, the six fathers unloaded in Freetown in May 1858 hardly hold more than one month: only one escapes from the yellow fever. The father Cushy job, successor of Marion-Brésillac, succeed in establishing more durable establishments in Dahomey as from 1860. It founds in 1876 the institute of the sisters missionaries of Notre Dame of the Apostles .

With the creation of the white Fathers and the penetration of the European powers in Africa starting from the end of the 19th century, the progression of the missions in Africa passes to high speed. In 1888, under the impulse of the Cardinal Lavigerie, the Church engages in an anti-slavery crusade. In practice, the repurchase of slave will be often at the origin of the first African communities which are formed around the missionaries. But the wave of adhesion to Christianity could not be reduced to questions of interest. One attends throughout the History with a historical movement of regression of the Animisme or Chamanisme the profit of the great religions like the Bouddhisme, the Islam or the Christianisme.

The Cardinal Lavigerie and the white Fathers

Charles Lavigerie, later known under the name of Cardinal Lavigerie is completely representative of what one could call the reconquista with the Frenchwoman. Islam had progressed, as one knows about all the southernmost part of the old Roman Empire become at the time of his bursting the Christian world. In spite of the crusades which disputed it, this movement of progression of Islam appears until the 19th century like irreversible, except the Spanish reconquista which drove back the Islam of the other with dimensions of Gibraltar. The Conquête of Algeria by France become oldest daughter of the Church meanwhile raises, in fact, the question of a possible questioning of hegemony of Islam in North Africa. The assessment of the reconquista to the Frenchwoman, is absolutely null in terms of Muslim populations gained with the Christian cause, but one assists, with the favor of the movement of exploration and colonization of Africa, with the rise of the new businesses missionaries, largely dominated by France.

Lavigery is itself, to some extent, a product of the reconquest of the French ground hearts: Its family, of middle class, was rather as regards Voltaire that as regards pope. Sent in a Christian college by convenience, it ends up entering to the Seminar. It is named bishop of Algiers in 1867. In Algeria, the clergy must limit their pastoral action to the European populations. The Muslim populations keep their common laws, their chiefs and depend directly on the " Offices arabes" army. At that time, the traditionalists mediums did not reinvest the army yet, and the officers are often of republican tradition and incroyants. Dice its arrival in Algiers, Lavigerie does not have of cease to require the liberalization of the action missionary.

This insistence to claim, by principle, the right to proselytism does not imply in any way a will to arrive at fast quantitative results baptisms conversions. Informed by its experiment of Islam when he was director of works of the East, Lavigerie knows well that individual conversion can lead only to exclude the individual from his community of origin and to thus lead to a socially nonviable situation.

It is thus a whole strategy of conquest which is worked out, which holds at the same time of surrounding and the osmosis and which aims at an overall swing of the company. To make jump the legal obstacle is only one requirement. It is initially necessary to form a clergy ready to gather the fruit when it is ripe. Less than one year after its arrival in Algiers, it creates the congregations of the “Missionaries of Africa”, those which will be known later under the name of “White Fathers”. To the noviciate of Algiers, the rules are Draconian, it is to them theoretically interdict of speaking between them differently than in Arabic. The ordinary clergy, receives prohibition to try conversions. It is necessary to find heads of bridge and weak links. The orphans will act as head of bridge, and the Kabylie will be identified like the weak link. 1868 are one year of famine in Algeria, and consequently, much of children wander without resource. It is the occasion to found orphanages. Grounds are bought so that they can live fruit of their work, a phalanstery, to some extent, where one carefully directs the children towards the faith. Later, the girls could link themselves with the boys to found Christian hearths. The Kabyles are Berbères, they speak a language whose origin is former on arrival of Arabic. Readings of orientalists persuade Lavigerie that the Kabylie is an old Christian ground and that Islamization is only surface there. The stations of missionaries are concentrated on this province, with the instruction not to seek with évangéliser the populations prematurely, but to found schools and dispensaries. In addition to the missionaries themselves, one needed sisters, who could infiltrate more effectively in the company. One year after the foundation of the Missionaries of Africa, Lavigerie founds the “sisters women farmer and hospital”.

As much to say it immediately, the attempts at evangelization of Algeria is a failure. The populations, which they are Arab or kabyles hardly have but their religion to affirm their identity vis-a-vis the European colonizers. Lavigery which is very except animal gives an account of it rather quickly. The energy of the Blancs fathers is redirected towards Africa.

As a conclusion

Since the 15th century, the expansion of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular were contrasted successes. One can try to express them by approximate statistics:

In 1997, one estimates that the billion catholics is distributed about in the following way: Europe, 287M, South America, 443M, North America, 73M, Africa, 118M, Asia, 111M, Oceania, 8M. In India, one counts nearly 20 million Christians, among whom 14 million catholics, which remains very little compared to the 700 million Hindus or the 100 million Moslems. The proportions of catholics is higher in other countries of Asia like Philippines (88%), Korea (49%) or Vietnam (11%). Certain countries of Africa are mainly catholic. In much of country, Christian populations coexist more or less well with Muslim populations. Rwanda is mainly catholic. One could overlook only in 1995, of the catholic Hutus massacred of Tutsis also catholic.

The Concile Vatican II, by allowing the abandonment of Latin undoubtedly facilitated the old intention of Propaganda constituting local clergies, but in much of African countries, the celibacy of the priests poses problem.

The expansion of Catholicism out of Europe is compensated by a movement of dechristianization in Europe and by a spectacular development sects Protestant women in traditionally catholic areas like the Latin America or West Africa.

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