The Influence of Latin-Melkite Relations in the Land of Transjordan From the Rebirth of the Latin Patriarchate to the Foundation of the Archdiocese of Petra and Philadelphia (1866-1932)

during the rst half of the 19th century, the holy see gradually considered the idea of increasing the presence of catholicism within the near east. In 1842, Pope Gregory XVI issued initial provisions for setting up new missionary activities under papal authority and direct supervision of the sacred congregation de propaganda de, founded by Gregory XV in 1622. In 1848, Pope Pius IX promulgated the encyclical in Suprema Petri sede. Rome’s renewed interest in the near east was of cially demonstrated, taking a decisive step toward the traditional project of ‘uniatism’, intended to lead to reuni cation between the eastern and Roman catholic churches through a precise missionary strategy aimed at converting and favouring the return of non-catholics, especially after the creation of an oriental department within the congregation de propaganda de in 1862. although this term is not used today, in the 19th-century uniatism described an ecclesiological development characterized by a strong gathering movement around the holy see.1 after the papacy of leo XIII and during the 1920s,uniatism came to be replaced with the term unionism in order to dispel past mistrust and the charge of hiding latinizing goals, reinforcing instead the role of the eastern churches as actors of the reunion, establishing a complex dialectic with the dimension of ecumenism.