The Convention regarding Missions between the Republic of Colombia and the Holy See was signed at Bogotá on 5 May 1928. Official text: Spanish. The signatories were Carlos Uribe, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Colombia, and Paolo Giobbe, Archbishop of Ptolemais, Apostolic Nuncio of Pope Pius XI. The signing formula is not transcribed. It is neither the Colombian Concordat of 1887, which it invokes, nor the Lateran Concordat of 1929.

Article I: the Government of Colombia and the Holy See accept the offer of the religious orders and congregations to continue the missions they already hold and to take charge of those assigned to them, supplying the personnel required. Article II lists, as ecclesiastical districts, three Apostolic Vicariates (Goajira, Casanare, Llanos de San Martín), seven Apostolic Prefectures (Caquetá, Chocó, Tierradentro, Arauca, Urabá, Sinú, Tumaco) and the Mission of San Andrés y Providencia, under the jurisdiction of the respective Ordinary. Article III refers boundaries to an appendix. Article IV asks, as a principle, for residences at the principal points on the frontiers with Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, so far as communications and resources permit.

Articles V–VIII: the Government undertakes to provide the missions with the means necessary for their life and growth, as fiscal resources allow, as compensation for missionary work; the sum then fixed, 75,000 pesos a year, is tied to Article 28 of the Concordat of 1887, the Convention of 4 August 1898 and Laws 103 of 1890 and 76 of 1892, paid half-yearly in advance at Bogotá to the representative of the Holy See. Land-allocation and school-administration regulations are not transcribed.

Articles IX–XI: the direction of public primary schools for boys in the mission territory, where provision falls to the Government, is entrusted to the heads of missions; all teaching establishments in those territories are under the inspection of the Ordinary, in accordance with the Colombian legislation cited. The Government undertakes to grant, for the duration of the Convention, such unused public lands as are required for the service of the missions, in accordance with the law in force. The head of each mission shall present annually to the Pontifical Representative, or in his absence to the nearest Metropolitan, a report on the state of the mission and the use of the sums received, to be communicated to the Government and the Holy See.

Articles XII–XV regulate, again as a matter of principle, the relation between the civil authority and the heads of missions in the mission territories, including consultation of the Nuncio on the appointment of civil chiefs, the judicial standing of mission Ordinaries as that of other diocesan Ordinaries (additional convention to the Concordat, Law 34 of 1892), and the designation of an ecclesiastical syndic or procurator. A handbook of “reduction” or of exploitation of indigenous territories is not transcribed.

Article XVI: the Convention remains in force for twenty-five years, without prejudice to the stability and spiritual development of the missions, in particular the Apostolic Vicariates and Prefectures; thereafter the Parties may prolong it or replace it. Registration with the League of Nations on 3 August 1928, volume 79, No. 1808. Authentic copy printed at the Imprenta Nacional, Bogotá, 22 June 1928.

Cover: Casa de Nariño in Bogotá, the presidential palace of the city of signature; no claim is made to the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Concordat of 1928; League of Nations Treaty Series, Vol. LXXIX, No. 1808.