Ludwig Mission Association

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The Ludwigs-Missionsverein (in different spellings) was founded on December 12th, 1838 as a Catholic, Bavarian mission agency, to support the young church in North America and Asia.

history

In 1838 Friedrich Reese , the Bishop of Detroit of German descent , went to Europe and visited King Ludwig I of Bavaria in Munich to ask him to found a Bavarian missionary organization. Reese had already initiated a similar association in Austria ten years earlier, which was called the Leopoldinenstiftung . The monarch complied with the bishop's request, initiated such a work, took over the patronage and gave him his name; it was the Ludwig Mission Association, which was initially only called the Ludwig Association .

The aim of the foundation was mainly to support the blossoming North American and Asian missions with funds, to pray for them regularly and to promote interest in them with scriptures. The association asked for 1 kreuzer per week or 6 kreuzer per month as a membership fee . In the beginning, the association was particularly dedicated to maintaining and increasing the faith in the numerous German emigrant families in America. The statutes say that the association serves to "spread the Catholic faith among pagans and unbelievers, especially in Asia and North America".

The funds were initially transferred to the Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, founded in Lyon in 1822, to be forwarded to the New World . Only when it turned out that the French mission center was neglecting the interests of people of German origin too much in distribution did Ludwig I decide in 1844:

“From now on, as long as I have nothing else, nothing of the collection of the Ludwigsverein will be sent to Lyon, but to the 'Prefetto della prop. fide 'here to Rome [...] The Ludwig Mission Association should be for our common Catholic Church and not be an instrument of French politics. "

Over the years, Ludwig I made no fewer than fifty, sometimes quite substantial, foundations for the association and its goals . The Wittelsbach rulers supported the foundation on a sustained basis until the end of the monarchy, and the missionary work became vital for the young church in North America.

In 1922 the Franziskus Xaverius Brotherhood , founded in Aachen in 1832 , the counterpart of the Ludwig Mission Association in the German dioceses outside Bavaria, was founded by Pope Pius XI. converted into a papal missionary organization. The Bavarian Bishops' Conference then decided to join the Pontifical Mission Societies.

Since 1972 the Ludwig Mission Association has been continued together with the Aachen branch of the Papal Work for Propagation of the Faith under the common name missio - Internationales Katholisches Missionswerk Ludwig Missionsverein KdöR . The two mission agencies support hundreds of projects in Africa, Asia and Oceania every year.

literature

  • Willibald Mathäser: The Ludwig Mission Association at the time of King Ludwig I , Munich 1939

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Hofmann: The founding of the Ludwig Mission Association . In: Wolfgang Weiß (Ed.): Franconia and the world mission in the 19th and 20th centuries . Schöningh, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-87717-071-7 , pp. 113–128, here p. 126.
  2. ↑ Karl Josef Rivinius : Reorganization of the mission works by Pius. XI. In: Michael Sievernich , Klaus Vellguth (ed.): Christianity in modern times. History, religion, mission, mysticism. Festschrift for Mariano Delgado . Herder, Freiburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-451-39983-1 , pp. 112–123, here p. 117.