Catholic Church. Congregatio de Propaganda Fide Records (PRF), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556
Records pertaining to the United States and territories that became part of it; consisting of decisions and decrees of the Congregation, correspondence with interested parties (often bishops and priests in the United States), and papers consulted or generated in monthly and weekly meetings, in audiences with the pope, or in meetings of commissions.
In Latin, Italian, French, and English.
ms 67-889
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith had control over all Roman Catholic missionary activity from the time of its foundation by Gregory XV in 1622. It had authority over the Catholic Church in the United States until 1908.
It consisted of a Cardinal Prefect and other cardinals appointed by the pope. They held a regular monthly meeting and formed commissions to deal with particular problems. In weekly meetings the Cardinal Prefect and the Secretary of the Congregation dealt with routine matters. Every two months the pope met with members of the congregation to answer questions that required his authority.
Taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia, the following article, written by Msgr. Umberto Benigni circa 1910, provides an overview of the history, jurisdiction, organization, procedures, faculties, and incidental features of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide .
Propaganda, Sacred Congregation of.
The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide , whose official title is "sacra congregatio christiano nomini propagando" is the department of the pontifical administration charged with the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs in non-Catholic conntries. The intrinsic importance of its duties and the extraordinary extent of its authority and of the territory under its jurisdiction have caused the cardinal prefect of Propaganda to be known as the "red pope".
I. History.
A. First Period.
Its establishment at Rome in the seventeenth century was owing partly to the necessity of communicating with new countries then recently discovered, and partly to the new system of government by congregations adopted during the Counter-Reformation. It is well known that, during this period, the defence and propagation of Catholicism suggested to the Holy See the establishment of a complete system of administrative departments, to each of which was assigned some special branch of Catholic interests. The propagation of the Faith was a matter of such vital importance as to demand for its work an entire congregation. The reconquest for the Church of the lands severed from it was not of greater importance than the evangelization of the vast regions then being explored by courageous adventures. America, Africa, the Far East, opened up new lands, new