Our Mission

We believe that the deepest and best understanding of our call to mission is expressed in the term Prophetic Dialogue. We do not dialogue from a neutral position, but rather, out of our own faith. Together with our dialogue partners we hope to hear the voice of the Spirit of God calling us forward, and in this way our dialogue can be called prophetic.

Dialogue is an attitude of solidarity, respect and love that is to permeate all of our activities. And so in a world that is so deeply divided, we hold on to the wisdom of St. Joseph Freinademetz, one of our first missionaries, who insisted:

"The only language that all the world understands is the language of love."

Reaching Out in Prophetic Dialogue

...with People Who Have No Faith Community and with Faith-seekers

Our call to mission is a call to reach out to faith-seekers and to people who have no community of faith, to engage in primary evangelization and re-evangelization. We include those who have never belonged to a faith community, others who may be alienated from the Church, and still others who may be searching for guidance beyond their own faith tradition. In short, we include all of those people who might welcome an invitation to be disciples of Jesus. We reach out to them in prophetic dialogue because we believe, together with our Founder, that "to proclaim the Good News is the foremost and utmost act of love for neighbour."

...with People Who Are Poor and Marginalized

Our call to mission is a call to prophetic dialogue with the poor and the marginalized of our world in seeking to promote integral human development. At Nazareth, Jesus indicated that he had come to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. Surely, those who are materially poor are always among the first to suffer oppression, but myriad other reasons (gender, race, appearance, physical ability, age, politics, educational attainment, etc.) have been used to justify marginalization and oppression. Today, attentive to the Word and Spirit of God and together with the poor and marginalized, we face the realities of oppression in our Church and in our world as we work for greater freedom.

...with People of Different Cultures

Our call to mission is a call to prophetic dialogue with people of different cultures so as to learn from and share in the diversity of gifts given by the God of Life. We also recognize that all cultures need redemption from elements of sin and death. As witnesses to God's Reign, we promote a life-giving encounter between the Gospel and the particular cultural and multicultural milieus.

 

...with People of Different Religious Traditions and Secular Ideologies

Our call to mission is a call to be more committed to prophetic dialogue with the other Christian Churches, with followers of other religious traditions, and with people committed to diverse ideologies. Together with all these dialogue partners we hope to hear the voice of the Spirit of God calling us forward in service. Our commitment to such dialogue is especially important where Catholics are in the majority. Otherwise we might rightly be suspected of promoting dialogue merely as a "tactic" for those situations where Catholics are less numerous.

Source: SVD Curia