MISSIO AD GENTES
AND THE EXCLUSIVELY MISSIONARY INSTITUTES

Introduction

I have been asked to deal with the issue of mission ad gentes as lived by the exclusively missionary institutes. I shall do so by situating this question in the context of the evolution of these Institutes. To illustrate it more concretely, I shall use my own Congregation as an example.

Like most exclusively missionary Congregations, our Congregation was founded in the 19th century. Two related factors encouraged the foundation of this new type of Congregations: a renewed dynamism for missionary activity in the European churches and the invitation following the physical and political (often forced) opening of new territories - China, Japan and central Africa - to the Western world.