IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, CONGREGATION OF THE (MISSIONHURST)

Also known as, Scheut Missionaries or Immaculate Heart Missioners or, in the U.S., Missionhurst Missioners. The Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM, Official Catholic Directory #0860) is a mission society of priests and brothers founded by Theophile verbist at Scheut (Brussels, Belgium) in 1862. It was originally limited to recruiting Belgian and Dutch missionaries for China, but it became international in 1947 when members from other nationalities were accepted.

In 1865 Verbist, with three priests and one lay helper, left for the Apostolic Vicariate of Xiwanzi (Siwantze) in Inner Mongolia. Verbist died in China in 1868; his remains were transferred to Scheut in 1931. His followers were instrumental in improving social conditions for the native converts in Inner Mongolia (250,000 Catholics before World War II). The missionaries bought land, leased it to small farmers who formed Catholic towns, and introduced irrigation in the Province of Ning-hia. In 1931 the Scheut missionaries, through the efforts of Rev. Joseph Rutten, were instrumental in finding a vaccine against spotted typhoid, thus saving the lives of hundreds of Catholic missioners in China. Ten Scheut missionaries were victims of the Boxer uprising (1900). Another 16 met violent death at the hands of bandits, Communists, or Japanese troops. A total of 665 priests and two brothers served in six dioceses and one archdiocese of Inner Mongolia and northern China. The last foreign-born member of the congregation left China in November 1955.

The Scheut missionaries began mission work in the Congo in 1885; the first native priest was ordained in 1934, and the first native bishop was consecrated in 1959. A foundation was made in 1907 in the Philippine Islands, where the missionaries concentrated their efforts in Mountain Province, northern Luzon. Other foundations followed in Singapore (1932), Indonesia (1937), Japan (1947), Hong Kong (1949), Haiti (1953), Chile (founded 1953, terminated 1957), Taiwan (1954), Guatemala (1955), and the Dominican Republic (1958). In 1946 the first permanent establishment was made in the U.S.

Scheut missionaries are ordained for foreign mission. The generalate is in Rome; the U.S. provincialate is in Arlington, VA.

Bibliography: j. rutten, Les Missionnaires de Scheut et leur Fondateur (Louvain 1930). v. rondelez, Scheut, Congregation missionnaire (Brussels 1962).

[a. f. verstraete/eds.]