New “Donum Missionis” Foundation to oversee Dicastery for Evangelization Colleges

By Salvatore Cernuzio

A new foundation brings together two existing entities with the same purpose: to oversee the care, preservation, and ordinary and extraordinary maintenance of the Colleges owned by the Dicastery for Evangelization’s Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches.

The Colleges provide accommodation and support to seminarians, priests, and religious men and women from mission territories who come to Rome for study.

Pope Leo XIV approved in the statutes of the new Donum Missionis Foundation in a Rescript published on Thursday, October 1.

The new juridical entity is the result of the merger of the existing Domus Missionalis and Domus Urbaniana, organizations that in recent years have both provided lodging and hospitality to priests, religious sisters, and seminarians from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania who are sent to Rome to complete or further their formation at Pontifical Universities.

The Pope has now decided to bring the two foundations together into a single institution, the Donum Missionis, in view of the “need to harmonize their canonical status” with the current regulatory framework and, more broadly, with the reforms to the structure of the Roman Curia introduced by Pope Francis through Praedicate Evangelium.

The institutions owned by what was formerly known as Propaganda Fide—and which will now come under the supervision of Donum Missionis—are: the Pontifical Urban College of Propaganda Fide, the Pontifical Missionary College of St. Peter the Apostle, the Pontifical International Missionary College of St. Paul the Apostle, the Pontifical Missionary College of St. Joseph, the Pontifical International Missionary College Mater Ecclesiae, and CIAM (International Center for Missionary Animation).

All the Colleges, according to the new statutes—which repeal all previous provisions—“are intended to provide hospitality to candidates for the priesthood, clerics, women and men religious who are sent to Rome from mission territories for an appropriate period of initial or ongoing formation, and to attend university courses and/or advanced training programs, thereby supporting their academic and spiritual formation, which is entrusted in particular to the professors and superiors of the Colleges.”

CIAM, in particular, hosts the ongoing missionary formation programs of the Pontifical Mission Societies and also provides accommodation to pilgrims, prayer groups, and laypeople.

The Foundation’s assets consist of an initial endowment of one million euros. Among its sources of funding are the annual contribution requested from the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), income from assets managed through a dedicated account/file of the Dicastery, and revenue generated by CIAM’s hospitality services.

The Donum Missionis Foundation president is the secretary of the Dicastery’s Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, appointed by the Pro-Prefect.

The organizational structure also includes a vice-president, who is responsible for establishing lines of action and management policies, as well as presenting the financial statements; a Board of Directors, composed of superiors of the Dicastery; a director; and a Board of Auditors, consisting of three members.

The latter is responsible for overseeing the accounts, purchasing goods or services required for the maintenance of the Colleges, and coordinating with the rectors and formation teams of each institution.

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