Scarboro Foreign Mission Society

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The Scarboro Foreign Mission Society ( lat. : Societas Scarborensis per Missionibus ad Exteras Gentes , religious symbol : SFM ) is a Catholic , Canadian medal for the mission .

history

Beginnings

The founder of the order was the Canadian priest John Mary Fraser (1877–1962), who had worked in the Apostolic Vicariate of Zhejiang in China since 1902 . His concern was to create a similar mission society for Anglophone Canada as the Société des Missions-Étrangères for Francophone Canada, which emerged around the same time and was finally formally founded in 1921. After Fraser had returned from China in 1918, he created, supported by Archbishop Charles-Hugues Gauthier of Ottawa , in Almonte , the China Mission College , as a seminary for the training of missionaries for the China mission . The foundation day is November 9, 1918, the last day of a novena begun on All Saints' Day for the success of the work. The training of prospective missionaries began in December 1918. Within a year John Mary Fraser had joined three priests and nine seminarians . In October 1919, the first issue of the monthly China appeared. Publication of China Mission College (from 1924: China. Publication of China Mission Canada ).

In 1920 the first graduate of the China Mission College was sent to what was then the Republic of China . The influx of young men was so great that the China Mission College was overcrowded after just two years. In 1921 the seminary was moved to Scarborough (near Toronto). The second location soon turned out to be too small. Archbishop Neil McNeil of Toronto made the purchase of a large property possible, also in Scarborough, not far from Scarborough Bluffs . In 1923/1924 a large mission seminary was built there and named after the China missionary Francisco de Xavier St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary . The location of the mother house was also used in the name of the mission society initiated by John Mary Fraser and developed from the missionary seminar.

The China Mission

In 1925 Propaganda Fide granted the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society its canonical recognition “ ad experimentum ” and assigned the Canadian missionaries the Apostolic Prefecture of Chuchow , based in Lishui, as a mission area. The prefecture was elevated to the Lishui Apostolic Vicariate in 1937 .

In 1940 the mission society was finally recognized as an institute under papal law. The following year the first general chapter elected John McRae as superior general .

After the Japanese army had penetrated the area of ​​the Apostolic Vicariate Lishui in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1942, it was no longer possible to send missionaries there. The graduates of the Scarboro Missionary Seminar were sent to the Dominican Republic in 1943 , the Mission Society's first mission outside of China.

After the end of World War II , the missionaries resumed work in China. But soon the Chinese Civil War was increasingly affecting the missionaries' work. In 1952, almost all of them were expelled from the People's Republic of China . Father Louis Arthur Venadam SFM and Father Paul Kam SFM were arrested in 1952; Father Louis Arthur Venadam was released in 1954, and Father Paul Kam died in a Chinese prison in 1958.

Missions in the second half of the 20th century

After the People's Liberation Army won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society could no longer send missionaries to China. Since the Dominican Republic seemed too small as an "alternative mission ", the General Council decided to set up missions in Japan , the Caribbean and Latin America , provided that the local bishops there would invite them to do so. Missions arose in Japan (1948–2005), Guyana (1953–2017), the Bahamas (1954–2012), the Philippines (1955–2009), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (1957–1991) , Brazil (since 1961), Panama (1962–2010), St. Lucia (1965–1989), Peru (1980–1993), Nicaragua (1984–1991) and Ecuador (1993–2010). China magazine changed its name to Scarboro Missions accordingly . There were also brief missions in some African countries.

In 1968 the Society reached the highest membership in its history: 161 priests, plus the novices and students preparing for the mission. Appointments dropped dramatically in the 1970s . Mission after mission has had to be closed since the 1990s.

21st century

Today (September 2018) the community has only 26 members. Scarboro missionaries are only active in the Dominican Republic and Brazil. Jack Lynch has been Superior General of the Order since 2017, succeeding Brian Swords.

In 2017 the General Chapter decided to let the Congregation die out, that is, to not accept any more new members, but to refer interested parties to other mission orders and not to send out any more lay missionaries.

The motherhouse was sold. From the proceeds of which were, among other things John Mary Fraser Institute for Practical Theology at Regis College of the University of Toronto founded. In November 2018, exactly 100 years after its foundation, most of the remaining Fathers moved to the Presentation Manor retirement home in Scarborough, along with old nuns and Fathers from other congregations .

literature

in order of appearance

  • William Cecil McGrath: The dragon at close range . St. Francis Xavier Seminary, Scarboro Bluffs / ABC Press, Shanghai 1938.
  • Grant Maxwell: Assignment in Chekiang. 71 Canadians in China, 1902–1954 . Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, Scarborough 1982, ISBN 0-9691173-0-2 .
  • Erin Philipps: The Impact of the Second Vatican Council on the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society . In: Canadian Catholic Historical Association (CCHA): Historical Studies , Vol. 52 (1985), pp. 97-112.
  • Harvey Steele: Dear old rebel. A priest's battle for social justice . Pottersfield Press, Porters Lake 1993, ISBN 0-919001-80-7 .
  • Jack Lynch (ed.): SFM Deceased: 1918-2008 . Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, Scarboro 2008.
  • Art. Scarboro Foreign Mission Society . In: Gary Tiedemann: Reference guide to Christian missionary societies in China. From the 16th to the 20th centuries . ME Sharpe, Armonk 2009, ISBN 978-0-7656-1808-5 , pp. 39-40.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Michael Swan: Missions accomplished: After 100 years, Scarboro Missions in Toronto is closing its doors . In: The Catholic Register , October 26, 2018, accessed July 2, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Art. Scarboro Foreign Mission Society . In: Gary Tiedemann: Reference guide to Christian missionary societies in China. From the 16th to the 20th centuries . ME Sharpe, Armonk 2009, ISBN 978-0-7656-1808-5 , pp. 39-40, here p. 39.
  3. ↑ Scarboro Missions , vol. 42 (1959), October issue, p. 31.
  4. ↑ China. Publication of China Mission College , vol. 1 (1919), issue 2, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Our first departure for China . In: China. Publication of China Mission College , Vol. 2 (1920), pp. 97-99.
  6. ↑ 100 years of mission - Part 1: 1918–1941. Beginnings and the China mission , accessed July 2, 2019.
  7. ^ Art. Scarboro Foreign Mission Society . In: Gary Tiedemann: Reference guide to Christian missionary societies in China. From the 16th to the 20th centuries . ME Sharpe, Armonk 2009, ISBN 978-0-7656-1808-5 , pp. 39-40, here p. 40.
  8. ↑ Jack Lynch (ed.): SFM Deceased: 1918-2008 . Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, Scarboro 2008, pp. 7-8.
  9. ↑ Scarboro Missions , September 2018, p. 138.
  10. ^ Canadian Catholic mission society to close after 99 years . In: La Croix International , October 25, 2017, accessed July 2, 2019.
  11. ^ Msgr. Fraser Center for Practical Theology opens. March 7, 2019, accessed July 5, 2019.
  12. ↑ Presentation Manor , November 11, 2018, accessed July 2, 2019.