The Catholic Church and National States in Western Europe during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, from a Perspective of Africa
Author(s)
Gray, Richard
Abstract
Propaganda Fide was created by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 as part of the Vatican’s attempt to counter Ottoman influence in Africa, although Propaganda Fide’s role in supervising missionary efforts stretched beyond Africa. In Africa, for the next two centuries, the Church attempted to separate its missions from the goals and whims of European monarchs, nationalism, and colonialism. In the 19th century, changing national fortunes effectively ended the control over overseas Catholic missions that Spain and Portugal had enjoyed since the Renaissance and which France had sought to exercise as well. New missions were more dependent on the Church than on national treasuries for support. Many of the new priests anxious to perform missionary work were followers of Ultramontanism and accepted the authority of the pope without question. As European colonialism increased, the Church attempted to avoid direct identification with the colonial administrations. As the Church began to prepare men of the indigenous populations for the priesthood, with the same rights as priests sent from Rome, it also struck early blows at colonialism and racism. Gradually, the policy of separateness from colonial administrations that the Church had followed led the Church to ally with its parishioners against colonial oppression.
