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Official correspondence between the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Portuguese Minister to the Holy See, dated 11 February 1921, concerning the establishment of the Apostolic Vicariate of Western Kwangtung and Hainan by papal decree (*Littera Apostolica*) of 1 August 1920. The document examines potential implications for the territorial jurisdiction of the Diocese of Macau, a Portuguese ecclesiastical see in China, following the reorganisation of Catholic missionary territories in southern China under the authority of the Holy See. Referencing a dispatch from Rome dated 5 January 1921, the letter outlines the newly defined boundaries of the vicariate—detached from the former Vicariate of Canton—and notes its assignment to the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Of particular concern is whether this reorganisation diminishes the Diocese of Macau’s jurisdiction without prior consultation, which the Portuguese government views as potentially detrimental to its interests. The communication includes a request for verification of any boundary changes affecting Macau and seeks guidance on diplomatic responses should such alterations be confirmed. Accompanying telegraphic records from 1950, related to administrative protocols of the Italian telegraph service, appear as archival annotations but are not part of the original 1921 diplomatic exchange. This document provides insight into early 20th-century church-state relations, colonial ecclesiastical policy, and Portuguese diplomatic oversight of its overseas dioceses within the context of Vatican-led reorganisations in East Asia.
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This transcription comprises the official acts and decrees of the First Plenary Council of China, convened in Shanghai in 1924 under the authority of the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Celsus Costantini, Titular Archbishop of Theodosia. The document records canonical legislation, administrative directives, and pastoral guidelines formulated by forty-six bishops, three apostolic prefects, and thirty-seven religious superiors for the governance of Catholic missions across China. It addresses ecclesiastical structure, sacramental discipline, clerical formation, missionary conduct, and relations with civil authorities and non-Christian traditions. Central themes include the establishment of quasi-parishes, regulation of Chinese rites, prohibition of superstition, promotion of indigenous clergy, and the integration of mission territories into universal canon law. The text also contains petitions to the Holy See concerning matrimonial dispensations, liturgical faculties, and the dogmatic definition of Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces, alongside procedural norms for matrimonial tribunals and educational institutions. As a foundational ecclesiastical record, it reflects the institutionalisation of the Catholic Church in early twentieth-century China within the framework of Roman centralisation and colonial-era mission policy.