Saints Light
Church History · Lesson 10 of 12

Missions to the World: Saints and Failures

The worldwide missions produced great saints and martyrs and also shared in conquest and slavery, and the faith lasted best where it was lived with humility and love.

This is a summary of Lesson 10 of Two Thousand Years in Twelve Lessons. The full lesson takes about 3 minutes in the Saints Light app.

The Delivery of the Keys, a painting by Pietro Perugino
The Delivery of the Keys, Pietro Perugino, 1481-1482

What this lesson teaches

  • Missionaries brought the faith worldwide, often alongside colonial power and its abuses.
  • Priests like Montesinos and Las Casas, and Pope Paul III in 1537, defended native peoples.
  • Catholics both condemned and took part in slavery; the Church now calls enslavement a grave sin.
  • Martyrs in Japan, Korea and Uganda show the faith taking deep root in new cultures.

Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites

  • CCC 849-851
  • CCC 856
  • CCC 2414

CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.

Scripture read in this lesson: Acts 1:8.

A sample question from this lesson

What did Pope Paul III declare in 1537 about the native peoples of the Americas?

  1. That they could be enslaved if they refused baptism
  2. That they were true human beings with the right to liberty and must not be enslaved
  3. That they should be forced to speak Latin
  4. That missionaries should stop working among them
Show the answer

That they were true human beings with the right to liberty and must not be enslaved. Paul III taught in 1537 that native peoples were fully human and must not be enslaved or robbed of their property.

The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.

Words to know

Private revelation
An approved apparition or message, such as Guadalupe, which can help faith but which no Catholic is required to believe.

More terms in the Catholic glossary. More passages in the Scripture index.

Read the full lesson in the app

"Missions to the World: Saints and Failures" is lesson 10 of Two Thousand Years in Twelve Lessons. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.

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