{
  "bookName": "HISTORY OF THE MISSIONS",
  "authorName": "BERNARD DE VAULX",
  "publisherName": "HAWTHORN BOOKS PUBLISHERS",
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "chapterNumber": 18,
  "chapterName": "The European Missions",
  "pageFrom": 189,
  "pageTo": 191,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 189,
      "ocrText": "CHAPTER XVIII\nTHE EUROPEAN MISSIONS\nThe European missions in modern times took care of the\nCatholics whose intention it was to remain faithful to Rome\nin the States and territories where the Reformation had\ntriumphed, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, a\npart of Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries. They in-\ncluded also the Catholics of Latin rite in Poland and the\nCatholics of Ruthenian rite whom, in both Poland and Russia,\nthe orthodox Russian Church had not succeeded in winning\nover.\nIn England, the position of the Catholics, scattered and very\nsmall in numbers, remained lamentable until O'Connell's cam-\npaigns had secured their emancipation throughout the United\nKingdom and the British colonies. Once this was done, the\nrevival of Catholicism began to expand, thanks to the Oxford\nmovement for which Newman was responsible and which\nWiseman supported at the English College in Rome, thanks\ntoo to the fervour and pugnacity of the Irish Catholics who\nhad settled in considerable numbers on English soil. From\n120,000 members in 1800, the Catholic community in England\nrose to 700,000 by 1850 (450,000 Irish). Pius IX gave recog-\nnition to this progress by substituting an archbishopric with\nten suffragan sees for the eight vicariates.\nCatholicism in Scotland passed through similar stages. After\nmore than two centuries of oppression, the Relief Bill of 1793,\na measure due to the efforts of George Hay, restored to it the\nownership of its property. In 1829, the Emancipation Bill\nmade it free and the Irish immigration reinvigorated it and"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 190,
      "ocrText": "190\nTHE EUROPEAN MISSIONS\nbrought about the establishment of numbers of religious com-\nmunities of both men and women. Leo XIII re-established\nthe hierarchy in 1878.\nAt the end of the eighteenth century, in 1775, the major part\nof North Germany and all Scandinavia formed the vicariate of\nthe North, which was divided several times during the nine-\nteenth century. Propaganda separated Norway and Sweden\nfrom the vicariate in 1783, the year in which an edict granted\nto foreigners alone the right to practise any religion other than\nLutheranism. Sweden then had a few hundred Catholics. In\n1842, they numbered 1,000 with four priests and two churches.\nThis figure had exactly quadrupled by the beginning of the\ntwentieth century. In Norway, the first Mass since the Reforma-\ntion was celebrated in 1843. Norway became an independent\nprefecture apostolic in 1855 and a vicariate in 1892. It also\nallowed religious Orders to settle in its territory. At the begin-\nning of the present century, the Catholics numbered 2,000.\nIn 1855, Propaganda incorporated in one prefecture, known\nas that of the North Pole, Lapland, the Faroes, Iceland, Green-\nland, the far North of the American continent, then the\nOrkneys and Shetlands. In 1866, this prefecture had only seven\nstations, of which the most active was that of the Faroes. In\nall there were 250 Catholics. It was suppressed in 1869.\nCatholics were a little more numerous in the vicariate of\nNorth Germany which was attached to the see of Osnabrück,\nand in the prefecture of Schleswig-Holstein. But they were\nscattered and divided in a number of parishes that was minute\nby comparison with the dimensions of the territory.\nThe prefecture of Denmark, established in 1868 and in\nwhich the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland were in-\ncorporated after the suppression of the prefecture of the North\nPole, became a vicariate in 1892. The Sisters of St Joseph had\nmade a foundation there in 1856. The progress of Catholicism\nwas less slow than in Sweden and Norway. In 1892, there\nwere 19,750 Catholics and twenty-nine parishes.\nCatholicism was reintroduced into Finland, at Viborg, in"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 191,
      "ocrText": "THE EUROPEAN MISSIONS\n191\n1721 by Polish soldiers serving in the Russian army. In 1781,\nit was authorized in the Swedish-speaking area. Missionaries\nfrom Germany arrived in Helsinki in 1860 but returned home\ndiscouraged. The Fathers of St Quentin came in 1906 after the\nabolition of the laws against toleration, but they could not\nstay more than two years. They returned again in 1917 and\nhad the assistance of some Dominicans. Together they suc-\nceeded in making a few converts.\nIn Iceland, where Catholicism had disappeared at the\nReformation, a French priest, Abbé Baudoin, founded at\nReykjavik and Grundavjorden, two mission stations which for\na long time had as their only parishioners the Breton fishermen.\nHowever, one native family was converted, but the departure\nof Abbé Baudoin left them without anyone to minister to\nthem (1876).\nIn 1892, the vicariate apostolic of Denmark to which Iceland\nhad been attached, sent a priest to Reykjavik and he estab-\nlished a parish there. In the following year, the Sisters of\nSt Joseph of Chambéry arrived and soon founded a school and\na hospital. Yet in 1897 there were only thirty-seven Catholics\nand ninety-two in 1902. In 1903 the de Montfort Fathers were\ngiven the responsibility of evangelizing Iceland and their efforts\nsucceeded in establishing a few Christian families on this stony\nsoil.\nAt the beginning of the twentieth century, there was no\nterritory in which the Sacred Congregation had not attempted\nto establish missions. The latter, it is true, did not always have\nthe supranational character she wished to stamp upon them.\nThey did not always give the native clergy the place which it\nshould hold in the new Christian communities as time goes on.\nIt was to reform them in these two particulars that the Holy\nSee applied itself during and after the pontificate of Bene-\ndict XV. The purpose of the sequel to this book is to describe\nthe precise circumstances in which these reforms were\nundertaken."
    }
  ]
}