I am Son Vu, also known as ‘Joseph’, a Divine Word Missionary (SVD) seminarian from Vietnam. I have been in Papua New Guinea for two years: six months for studying English at Divine Word University and Tok Pidgin in Kunjigini and almost one and a half years for my pastoral experience. I am very grateful for this meaningful mission experience in Simbu Province, Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

This year’s Annual Missionary Encounter of the province was focused on the theme: Poverty, as emphasised by Pope Francis in his message ahead of the firs World day of the poor to be celebrated on 19th November 2017. The two-day encounter marks the tenth of its kind since its commencement and it is aimed at fostering a Christian missionary commitment and collaboration between the SVD, the SSpS, and our Lay Missionaries (LVD) in the Province.

“Your life, is our life, your mission is our mission”

On August 18, 2017, a formative meeting was organized for lay missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Río Azul in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The theme of the gathering was: the spirituality of the Divine Word Missionaries and the four characteristics dimensions of the Congregation (Mission, Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation, Bible and Communications).

The Lay Society of St. Arnold Janssen (LSSAJ) in the Philippines organized a two-day seminar on Training Facilitators for Spiritual Transformation of Drug Dependents, held in Catholic Trade Manila on the second week of June 2017. This was jointly organized and conducted by the JPIC Coordinator Fr. Flavie Villanueva SVD, LSSAJ, and the Archdiocese of Manila. Seventy participants attended, of which, twenty came from LSSAJ group. After the seminar, the participants were sent on mission to parishes in Metro Manila where there are some drug dependents.

The seminar employed the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous which is a proven tool to help in the recovery of drug dependents. We also shared the biblical foundation of these twelve steps that are linked to their Catholic beliefs. Special focus was given to Healing and Restoration of Dignity of a human being and the Image of God. It was also necessary to render to the participants a contextualized and the importance of the practice of Prayer and the Sacraments.

When the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) assumed their mission in Liberia, the Bishop specifically asked our confreres to be involved in the educational field. Our confrere Fr. Joseph Addai, bringing in his long experience in education, was assigned to oversee the Education and School Apostolate in this new mission.

50 years of the presence of the Divine Word Missionaries en Angola.

In our parish "Exaltation of the Holy cross" in Tambov, we can say that there are two groups of parishioners: Russian and foreign students, majority of whom are from Africa. Among the pastoral activities of the parish as recommended by the Diocese we try to create a special apostolate with these students so that they may feel integrated into the parish community.

Brother Andrès, a Divine Word missionary talks to us about his work with the less-fortunate children in Bolivia.

P. What is CINCA and how was it founded?

R.- CINCA: Centro Integral de Niños de la Calle (Integral Centre for Street Children), is a non-profit making organization that was founded in 1992 after realizing the lack of schooling among the boys and girls of El Alto, in La Paz-Bolivia, without access to neither public nor private education due to lack of resources and social exclusion. “It is part of the social works carried on by the Congregation of the Divine Word Missionaries” (Article 1 of the Statutes). It enjoyed both juridical legal capacity (Nº 0201) and ecclesiastical legal capacity (Res. 0201), as far as the Bolivian legislation was allowing to have both. The new Bolivian Law allows only one legal capacity and so CINCA has only the Ecclesiastical one.

Klemens Amaunut from Indonesia shares his mission experiences with lay people in Zambia.

The mission animation Bolivia region made up of a team of neo missionaries, two juniors in OTP (Overseas Training Program) and the Sisters servants of the Holy Spirit, have conducted the MISSIONARY WEEK at the Immaculate Conception parish of Laja and Tambillo. We were in Laja for one week. The missionary week was a missionary activity that carried the message of the Pope on mission Sunday; THE MISSIONARY CHURCH; WITNESS TO MERCY. According to Pope Francis, our Church is not a Church in waiting, but rather a Church that goes out to the meet the people. In this spirit, the Bolivia SVD region organized a concrete activity of going to meet the people. The missionary week team arrived in Laja on 10th October 2016.

"Come and See"

The World Mission Sunday this year was aptly celebrated in the Collegio del Verbo Divino, thanks to the program laid out by Mission Secretary Stanislaus Lazar in collaboration with the Rector of Collegio del Verbo Divino, Nicolas Espinosa and his Leadership Team, local chaplains of different migrant communities, and confreres.

The parishes of Sacred Heart, Andheri, St. Theresa of Lisieux, Bandra and St Teresa of Calcutta, Mysore had a unique way of celebration the Mission Sunday. Prior to the Mission Sunday, the whole weed was celebrated as ‘Mission Week’ dedicated to the SVD Missionaries and Missions in Orissa.

Ambassa: October 5, 2016, Oishobani Registered Society Ambassa, in collaboration with Ambassa Parish organized an outreach programme at Udaising village, under Ganganagar Block. From Agartala Missionary of Charity Sisters collected clothes from rich people from Agartala the capital city of Tripura and rice to distribute to these selected families.

Mapuche (Che = People; Mapu = of the land) is the largest ethnic group in Chile, constituting approximately 10% of its total population. Around half of the Mapuche population lives in the South of Chile, the Andes and alongside the Bi?o Bi?o river. The other half is found in and around the capital, Santiago. Until this day the situation of the Mapuches in Chile is still vulnerable.

The teachers at the Roque González Institute, Posadas use their professional skills to share the Gospel in concrete ways. They start from the fundamental premise that education is not just knowledge, but involves how to be a responsible person in the world. Throughout their secondary education, students participate along with teachers from their corresponding classes in conferences organized by a spiritual adviser and a secretary.

The association of the "Friends of the SVD" has another reason to thank God. Two weeks after celebrating its tenth anniversary, a new group committed partnership to the association. This group involves sixteen parishioners of the Parish Saint Joseph the Artisan, of Sonahoulou, north of Benin. On April 23, 2016, training took place wherein the Statutes and Rules of Procedure of the association were also addressed.

The topic of Germany as a missionary task and opportunity united around fifty students and teachers at St. Augustine’s theological faculty in a heated reflection and exchange during a three day workshop. The Faculty organized these “study days” to include three lectures in the mornings and workshops during the afternoons, as their contribution to the “year of religious life”. Therefore, the title “Missionstand Deutschland – (Von) Den Orden aufgegeben” dealt with the dual perspective of Germany as a mission territory and opportunity.

On Saturday, October 17, 2015, Roe, a small and remote village in West Flores, was privileged to host an international celebration commemorating 50 years of quality presence of 20 Polish SVD Missionaries’ in Indonesia. The celebration was divided into two sections: A Mass of Thanksgiving and agape (getting together) with all the attendants. Those in attendance were: Fr. Andrzej Danilewicz, SVD (Polish Mission Secretary), Fr. Arlindo Pereira Dias, SVD and Bro. Guy Mazola Mido, SVD (General visitors for IDE), Fr. Tadeusz Gruca, Fr. Czeslaw Osiecki, Fr. Stanislaw Pikor and Fr. Stefan Wrosz (representatives of the 20 missionaries); Fr. Syrilus Lena (the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Ende); Poland Vice Ambassador and his wife; representatives of NTT Governor and Nagekeo Regency. There were also a good number of SVD priests, SVD brothers, religious sisters, and many lay faithful of Roe station.

The 50 years of presence of these 20 Polish SVD Missionaries was celebrated in a special way because of the unique political situation they faced in the past. At that time, Poland was under the domination of Russia and was well known as a Communist country. The Communist government didn’t allow missionaries to go abroad. At the beginning of September in 1964, Fr. Yosef Diaz Viera, an Indonesian SVD priest arrived in Poland wanting to get some Polish SVD Missionaries for Indonesia.

It was the right time because Indonesia’s Ambassador for Poland and his secretary were both Catholics. Fr. Diaz also went to Pieniezno to meet Fr. Koziel, the Provincial, in order to request for 20 missionaries as volunteers for Indonesia. At the time, there was an annual retreat in progress; so many young confreres were present for the retreat. Within a few minutes after his request was made, a list of 20 missionaries was completed. With this list, Diaz, then went back to Warsawa asking the Indonesian Ambassador to arrange a meeting with the Head of Department of Employees of Poland. The staff of the department was surprised when Fr. Diaz asked permission for 20 polish priests to be sent to Indonesia as volunteers. He stated, “We can give you engineers, doctors but where would the government take these priests from?” Fr. Diaz answered, I already have the list of the volunteers, and therefore you do not have to look for them. We only require the permission from the high authority. By the help and great effort of Fr. Diaz, the permission was granted in April 1965. By June 1965 all official arrangements were completed and on August 27, 1965, the group of the 20 missionaries arrived in Jakarta.

Fr. Leo Kleden, the SVD Provincial of IDE in his homily at Golden Jubilee, reiterated that this particular celebration is important because by the sending of the first 20 SVD missionaries from Poland to Indonesia, the possibility was made for all other congregations in Poland to send their own members as missionaries abroad. It was then a kind of a new exodus in mission sending. Leo, then thanked the governments of Poland and Indonesia and the local Church in Indonesia for the good cooperation. The event has widened the horizons of the Polish people and enabled some degree of openness of mind and heart with the perception that the Catholic Church is for all people from all generations and nations. They are now at home with the fact that the Polish Catholic Church is part of the universal Catholic Church. This aspect was captured vividly in Fr. Danilewicz’s speech.

Fr. Stanis Pikor, on behalf of 20 pioneer Polish Missionaries, thanked the Government of Poland for allowing them to go abroad and he thanked the Government of Indonesia for allowing them to live and work as Missionaries in Indonesia. He then ended his speech by saying: “If you ask us whether we would like to go back to Poland? Our answer will certainly be ‘NO WAY’. This is because we love Indonesia as much as we love our homeland.

(Translator from Indonesian: Gabriel Wangak, svd)

From the 20th 22nd of March 2015, it was organized in the Mission House and Seminary of the Divine Word Missionaries  in Pieniezno the annual meeting for the Friends of Mission.

As a specific combination of POL priorities I would like to describe one of the events organized by our Fu Shenfu Migrant Centre in Warszawa. We help people there in various ways, including free classes of the Polish language.

A clean water well was recently completed for the minority ethnic people. This tribe is of the Chu Ru people in Duc Trong, Lam Dong Province. The priest who ministers to these people is an indigenious himself and his name is Francis Savier K'Roih, ministering at Da Loan Parish, of Da Lat Diocese. 

The Mission Office of the Vietnam Province had initiated the project of investing a cow and a sheep for the poor families in the past two years and it has been a great success. This is how the project operates:

“For a poor and servant Church of the poor”