However many former missionary jurisdictions - mainly in the Third World - remain, after promotion to diocese of (Metropolitan) Archdiocese, under the Propaganda Fide instead of the normally competent Congregation for Bishops, notably in countries/regions where the Catholic church is too poor/small (as in most African countries) to aspire self-sufficiency and/or local authorities hostile to Catholic/Christian/any (organized) faith.

[1] The early congregation was established in the Palazzo Ferratini, donated by Spanish cleric Juan Bautista Vives, to the south of the Piazza di Spagna.

[2] The adjunct secretary and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies[3] was Archbishop Giampietro Del Toso[4] The under-secretary was Father Ryszard Szmydki, O.M.I.

[5] Founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV with the bull Inscrutabili Divinae,[6] the body was charged with fostering the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of Catholic ecclesiastical affairs in non-Catholic countries.

The intrinsic importance of its duties and the extraordinary extent of its authority and of the territory under its jurisdiction caused the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda to be known as the "red pope".

They were especially charged with promoting the union with Rome of the long-established Eastern Christian communities: Slavs, Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, and Abyssinians.

In strongly Protestant areas, the Congregation's activities were considered subversive: the first missionary to be killed was in Grisons, Switzerland, in April 1622, before the papal bull authorizing its creation had been disseminated.

The church overall has many statues and regulations in place for the overseen congregations so that they may determine the appropriate way to hold mass, perform the sacraments and spread the gospel in difficult or challenging settings.

During Clement VIII's reign, in the sixteenth century, the second purpose for the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (CPF) was for the organization to procure financial support for their missions – both in domestic and international territory.

Each territory would have procurators, where these individuals would ensure that mail, funds, and merchandise could be sent via any route, and Swedish, Danish, and English ships were preferred for their reliability.

Most of CPF missions were run and funded by religious orders which were affiliated with this organization, but they were financially independent, like the French MEP and Italian Barnabites; and on the other hand, other income came from land properties, real estate, and commercial rentals in Rome and the Pontifical States, and also inheritance and donations from benefactors – from within Italy and abroad.

[12] The press faced significant challenges when most of the equipment and machinery they used to print books was stolen and destroyed during the invasion of Rome in the Napoleonic Wars, 1809 (New Catholic Encyclopedia 11, 751).

In 1642, Father Valerio, with Bernini, redesigned the façade to the Piazza di Spagna, and the development was continued along the Via Due Macelli by Gaspare de'Vecchio from 1639–1645.

The criss-cross arrangement in the Re Magi Chapel is such that an octagon is formed at the centre, embellished with a Dove of the Holy Spirit bathed in golden rays.