Instrukcja Kongregacji Rozkrzewiania Wiary dla Wikariuszy Apostolskich, udających się do prowincji chińskich: Tonkinu i Kocinchiny (1659)
Instruction of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith for the Apostolic Vicars Going to the Chinese Provinces: Tonkin and Kocinchina (1659)

Summary/Abstract: During the colonial period, the popes entrusted the management of missionary activities to the patronage of the kings of Spain and Portugal. With the arrival of the Portuguese in Asia in 1468 a period of evangelisation of the region under the control of secular authority began, known as the padroado system. The response to this was the ‘Instruction to the Apostolic Vicars going to the Chinese provinces of Tonkin and Kocinchina’ of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide in 1656. The Congregation’s decree contains three great directives: the need for the formation of native clergy, the separation of missionary activity from politics and respect for local cultures. The missiological treatise and the Congregation’s appeal for the unity of the Church based on obedience to the Holy See form an important chapter here. What emerges from the document is a profound awareness of the universality of Christianity open to all cultures, which – in the twentieth century – will find expression in a theology of inculturation.

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