Professor Eugenio Menegon Wrote Introduction for Publication with Urbaniana University Press
A long-awaited publication, a decade in the making and containing a comprehensive introduction by History Professor Eugenio Menegon (“Propaganda Fide in China and the Historical Archives,” 70 pages), was just printed in Rome to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Propaganda Fide Congregation (today the Holy See’s Dicastery for Evangelization; 1622-2022): Ad Dudink, Catalogue of Chinese Documents in the “Propaganda Fide” Historical Archives (1622-1830), with an introductory essay by Eugenio Menegon, Rome: Urbaniana University Press, 2022 (514 pages and 92 color plates).
From the publisher’s webpage: “This first catalogue of Chinese documents in the Archives of Propaganda Fide offers not only an annotated list of its invaluable resources, but also reproduces the full text of a few rare or unique Chinese Christian texts. The Catalogue (compiled by Dr. Dudink; and edited by Drs. Giuseppe Zhao Hongtao and Emanuele Raini) is preceded by Menegon’s essay, which gives a full explanation of the entire structure and contents of the Archives pertaining to the China missions, and sketches the activity of Propaganda Fide missionaries in China up to the early 19th century. Menegon observes that ‘the Chinese documents catalogued here open a window on the daily life of the Chinese Christian communities and their pastors, and the reaction of Chinese society to Catholic activities. Read together with the letters and reports sent from Asia in European languages to accompany them, they offer a corrective to a Rome-centered vision of the missions.’ ”
