1959
According to the Medical Missionary magazine, September - October 1959:
“June 11, 1959, was a Red Letter Day for the Medical Mission Sisters. On that day, our Holy Father, Pope John XXIII, granted the Decretum Laudis to the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries. As the Society is the first ex-professo Medical Mission Sisterhood, it may be of interest to trace the steps from its erection as a PIOUS SOCIETY to Papal Approval …”
When a congregation has grown in importance and when its spiritual and apostolic maturity is observed, it can be formally approved by the Pope with the Decretum Laudis (Decree of Praise). This transforms it into a congregation of pontifical right, subject to immediate and exclusive authority of the Holy See.
This grace and favour was bestowed on the Society on June 11th in the 34th year of its existence. The Decretum Laudis was received at the Generalate in Rome with deep joy and profound gratitude to God and the Holy Father. No time was lost to communicate the glad tidings to all the houses of the Society who joined a day of special thanksgiving and rejoicing.
The Society has a long history of breaking down barriers to gender equality: its own founding in 1925 overcame a canon law, unaltered since 1263, prohibiting religious sisters from practising medicine in the Church. Although the Society grew only slowly in the beginning, it grew steadily, and from the many requests from countries where the poor had no access to medical treatment, it was evident that medical mission filled an unmet need.
The article in the Medical Missionary magazine continues to describe the bestowing of the Decree of Praise, as follows:
“The slow and step-like approval of a Community with no precedent, such as the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, shows on the one hand the concern of the Church to safeguard the religious life first and foremost. It also shows her taking into account the changing times with the progressive social and educational development of women and the passing of medicine from a “hit and miss” stage to one of scientific practice with a moral code of ethics, making it possible to exercise it with reasonable safety and dignity. Last but not least, a major factor no doubt in giving Mission Sisters permission to study and practice medicine is the unprecedented social awakening of large populations of the world clamouring for a share in what makes life more worthy of human beings. Surely improvement of the deplorable health conditions, a longer span of life and relief in the agonies of pain and misery in their numerous illnesses are their due. The task is enormous and urgent. The more and the better qualified representatives of the Church join with those many others already in the field, the more she can express her love and concern for suffering mankind.
In conclusion, it must be justly pointed out that not only the members of the Society but all those - and they are legion - who have been instrumental in building up the Society spiritually, educationally and materially have a share in the Decree of Praise and may it be hoped also in the trust placed in the Society to go on and forward with confidence and zeal. The Medical Mission Apostolate is teamwork for a better world. The Holy Father has praised it. God wills it.”
In conclusion, when the Decretum Laudis was granted to the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries, this achieved the Society’s aspiration ‘to be rooted and founded’ in the Church.
The photographs opposite show Mother Anna Dengel receiving the decree in June 1959 and reviewing it with Father Heston. A copy of the text of the decree is displayed in Latin.