propaganda

In 1622, Pope Gregory XV established the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide — the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Propaganda comes from the Latin gerundive of propagāre (to propagate, to spread, to extend), from prōpāgō (a slip for planting, an offspring).

The Vatican's Propaganda was not sinister — it organized Catholic missionary work worldwide. 'Propaganda' simply meant 'things to be propagated' — i.e., the faith. For two centuries, the word was neutral or positive in European languages.

The word turned dark during World War I and especially the Nazi era. Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda made the word synonymous with systematic deception and mass manipulation. After 1945, 'propaganda' could never be neutral again.

Now the word is exclusively pejorative in English — no one admits to producing propaganda, only to countering it. The Vatican's Propaganda Fide quietly renamed itself the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 1967, conceding the word to its darker meaning.