What is svd in catholic?

As you know, the “SOCIETAS VERBI DIVINI,” abbreviated SVD, is the world’s largest Roman Catholic Order of Priests and Brothers who focus on missionary work. SVD in English is called the Society of the Divine Word. It was founded in Steyl, Netherlands in 1875 by St. Arnold Janssen during the church-state conflict called the Kulturkampf, which resulted in many religious groups being expelled and seminaries being closed in Germany. Since the SVD was founded in 1875, our membership has consistently grown to over 7,000 members around the globe.

In 1880, Father Arnold Janssen began to reach out to the laity by means of not only publishing magazines for them, but also by publishing books for the laity to read so that they would be inspired to work along with SVD missionaries working in the missions.

The preceding information gives us a slight idea of how much our Founder wanted to involve lay Catholics in the missionary work of the Church along with his three foundations; namely, the Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini ‘SVD’), the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSPS) and the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (SSPSAP). He has left this task up to his spiritual sons and daughters in the missions to work for the glory of God on this earth.

Therefore, the goal of SVD-Associates is to inspire lay Catholics to learn more of the spirituality of the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD), keep up-to-date with the lives of SVDs and engage in  prayer for the success of the SVD missions around the world. That’s why VISION and MISSION SVD- VISION: Associate is:

SVD-Associate aspires to follow the example of the Society of the Divine Word Missionary or “SOCIETAS VERBI DIVINI,” Charism to proclaim the Word of God to families, local churches and the whole world.

MISSION: To work together with the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries around the world and encourage the laity to be missionaries.

IMPLEMENTATION MISSION:

The Society of the Divine Word (Latin: Societas Verbi Divini), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, it consisted of 5,965 members composed of priests and religious brothers working in more than 70 countries, now part of VITA international. It is one of the largest missionary congregations in the Catholic Church. Its members add the nominal letters SVD after their names to indicate membership in the Congregation. The superior general is Paulus Budi Kleden who hails from Indonesia.

The Society was founded in Steyl in the Netherlands in 1875 by Arnold Janssen, a diocesan priest, and drawn mostly from German priests and religious exiles in the Netherlands during the church-state conflict called the Kulturkampf, which had resulted in many religious groups being expelled and seminaries being closed in Germany.

In 1882, the Society started sending missionaries into China’s Shandong Province, where their aggressive methods were part of the chain of events that led to the Boxer Uprising in the late 1890s. In 1892, missionaries were sent to Togo, a small country in west Africa. The Togo mission was particularly fruitful, for 15 years later the Holy See had appointed an Apostolic prefect. The Society’s third mission was to German New Guinea, (the northern half of present-day Papua New Guinea). A mission was also opened in Paraguay.

In the 20th century the Society further expanded, opening communities in Australia, Botswana (Gaborone, Gumare and Ghanzi); Brazil; Canada (Quebec and Ontario); Indonesia; South Africa (Phalaborwa, Polokwane and Pretoria); the United States of America (Appalachia and Illinois); and Zambia (Kabwe, Livingstone, and Lusaka). Additional European communities were established in Austria (Bischofshofen near Salzburg and Vienna); the Netherlands (Tegelen); Rome; the United Kingdom and in the Silesian area in Poland (where Fr. Mirosław Piątkowski invented in 1994 a new devotion, the Chaplet of the Holy Spirit and His Seven Gifts).

Many religious orders and congregations have certain characteristics or traits that make them known. The Divine Word Missionaries are recognised by what are called the four characteristic dimensions: the Bible, Mission Animation, Communication, Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC). With regards to the missions, what makes the SVD unique from many missionary institutes is that mission areas or regions are not the sole responsibility of individual provinces, but of the whole Society. The SVD generalate may appoint members from any country to any other country with priority given to those places which are most in need. This also explains why many SVD communities are international in character.

The SVD has two sister congregations, also founded by Saint Arnold Janssen. They are the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS), otherwise known as the "Blue Sisters" and a contemplative branch called the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration (SSpSAP) or better known as the "Pink Sisters"; the nicknames allude to the colour of the respective religious habits.

As members of a religious institute the Missionaries of the Divine Word embrace the evangelical counsels, taking the three traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Poverty means that all possessions are held in common and that no member may accumulate wealth. Chastity means more than abstaining from sexual activity and its purpose is to make the religious totally available for service; it is also a sign that only God can completely fill the human heart. For a member of a religious congregation, obedience is not slavishly doing what one is told by the superior but being attentive to God’s will by prayerfully listening to the voice of the person in charge. Ultimately, these vows are lived out within a community and bolstered by a relationship with God.

The core formula of the solemn Vows of the Divine Word Missionaries, as cited in their constitutions, is as follow:

In the initial stages, those interested in joining the congregation have several meetings with an SVD priest, usually with visits to a community. During this time the members of the congregation share what it is like to be a priest, or a religious brother. Those who are enquiring about entering the congregation are strongly encouraged to attend Mass as often as possible, to read the Sacred Scriptures especially the Gospel accounts and to regularly spend time in prayer in order to better discern their vocation.

This is a yearlong experience of living in an SVD community, sharing in many aspects of the life of the congregation. "The goal of the Pre-novitiate is to enable the student to experience religious missionary life in community, deepen his own understanding of vocation and continue the initial learning about the SVD, its charism, its origins, history and mission." During this time the candidates participate in the prayer life of a community, share more deeply with others and become involved in one of more of the congregation’s apostolates. Essentially, it is an extended period of discernment for the postulants and an opportunity for the congregation to assess the strengths of the candidates and possible areas requiring growth.

Next follows the novitiate which is the time for preparing to take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The novitiate year is crucial, for it is then “…that the novices better understand their divine vocation, and indeed one which is proper to the institute, experience the manner of living of the institute, and form their mind and heart in its spirit, and so that their intention and suitability are tested.”

Thus, the novices are given the opportunity for longer periods of prayer and spiritual reading as well as silence in order to reflect on the vocation God is offering and nature of their response. The spiritual development of the novice is of particular focus, especially through spiritual direction. During the novitiate the history and Constitutions of the Congregation are studied in depth. A simple profession is made at the end of the novitiate and the person officially becomes a member of the Society, for

After the novitiate, the new members of the congregation continue their studies. For those preparing for Holy Orders this normally involves a 4-year theology degree. In the United States students attend Catholic Theological Union. In Australia, studies are taken at the Melbourne College of Divinity after which students are strongly encouraged to spend a year in a foreign mission before proceeding to ordination. Filipino students attend the Society’s own Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay. Final vows are taken immediately before ordination to the diaconate which is followed by ordination to the priesthood between six months and a year later. In Indonesia students attend St. Paul Major Seminary-Ledalero.

Those whose vocation is to the brotherhood pursue studies which are suited to developing their talents and interests. The Society is conscious that some regard brothers as being lower than priests and, in response, it states:

Vows are renewed annually; after three years a member may request final vows. According to Canon law, temporary vows may be renewed for a longer period but not exceeding nine years.

The Society came to Britain in 1931 and to Ireland in 1939. St. Richards College in Birmingham became its seminary and boarding school. In Ireland Donamon Castle, Co. Roscommon became its noviciate and philosophy school, in 1980 its students moved to Maynooth College. The Divine Word Missions produced the magazine The Word (Divine Word Missionaries) in Maynooth they set up training and media company Kairos Communications which produces programmes for TV, and runs the postgraduate course in conjunction with St. Patrick's College, Maynooth and the media studies degree with National University of Ireland, Maynooth. SVD House provides student accommodation in Maynooth.

In a departure from the traditional sources of income used by many religious congregations which run schools, hospitals and retreat centres, the Divine Word Missionaries who are citizens of Botswana, in collaboration with professional lay people, run "Catholic Safaris". The idea was to run a safari with a Catholic perspective and aims to support the local ventures, creating also job opportunities and income for the families. The centre serves the Catholic mission territory of the northern and western parts of Botswana.

The members of the province also work with those affected by HIV and AIDS, orphaned children, refugees, health education, catechetics, Scripture study, environmental issues and unemployed young people. They have an outreach mission in Zimbabwe. Their preferred partners in dialogue are:

The Society operates Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. In 1932 the German SVD missionary Joseph Reiners (1874-1945) founded Nanzan High School in Nagoya. In 1946, the Nanzan College of Foreign Studies was established, which comprised an English Department and Chinese Department, with German and French Departments added in the following year. Nanzan University was formed in 1949.　The Faculty of Literature comprised English, French, German and Chinese Departments. In addition to the schools run by The Society in Japan, many priests serve as pastors in local Churches in Nagoya, Nagasaki, Akita and Niigata Prefectures, and in Tokyo. The current archbishop of Tokyo, Bishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, and the bishop-elect of the Diocese of Niigata in Northeast Japan, Paul Daisuke Narui, are members of the Society of the Divine Word.

In the Philippines, the Divine Word Missionaries arrived in Bangued, Abra, in 1909, founding schools in Bangued, Vigan, in Ilocos Sur and Laoag City in Ilocos Norte, as well as in other parts of the Philippines. Now there are about 500 Filipino SVD priests and brothers and around 150 of them are serving in overseas missions on all continents. In the Philippines, the SVD have three ecclesiastical provinces, namely: the Philippine North (PHN) that comprises missionary works of Pangasinan to Aparri; the Philippine Central (PHC) that covers the National Capital Region, and all the provinces comprising central Luzon, southern Tagalog and the whole Bicol region; and the Philippine South (PHS) whose ministries cover the Visayas and Mindanao Islands. Saint Jude Catholic School, a school in Manila near Malacañan Palace, is an SVD school. The congregation opened Christ the King Mission Seminary in 1934 in Quezon City for their Filipino seminarians and from then on their numbers continued to increase eventually making the SVD the largest religious institute of men in the country.

The SVD Philippine Southern Province works on three areas: formation, education and pastoral ministries. In formation, young candidates for the priesthood are trained in the Divine Word Formation Center in Davao City while seminarians for brotherhood are formed in the Freinademetz Formation House in Cebu City. In education, the SVDs run the University of San Carlos in Cebu City; Holy Name University in Tagbilaran City; and the Liceo del Verbo Divino (formerly Divine Word University) of Tacloban City. In pastoral ministries, the SVDs have one parish in Cebu City, five parishes in Surigao del Norte, six in Agusan del Sur and two in Zamboanga, Sibugay, and Olutanga Island. They manage radio stations, the Steyler Canteen, Catholic Trade Cebu, Inc., and a retreat house. They also work in cooperatives, adopted communities, and depressed areas and dialogue with faith seekers and other religions. Their vision statement is as follows:

In 1905 the Divine Word Missionaries began work in African American parishes in Mississippi, and St Augustine Seminary, the first school specifically for the training of African American men for the Catholic priesthood, was opened in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi shortly thereafter.

Divine Word Missionary priests have long worked in African American communities in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, in Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. Numerous African Americans have joined the Society of the Divine Word as priests and brothers and have served as foreign missionaries throughout the world.

The Western USA Province has since converted the St Augustine's seminary into a retreat center.

Arnold Janssen was born on November 5, 1837 in the town of Goch, Germany, a town near the Dutch border. From his childhood, he was influenced by the Prologue of St. John and developed a special love for the Word. He was ordained a diocesan priest in 1861, and began his ministry as a teacher. He began a magazine for mission awareness, The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart. In the Messenger, he began to promote the idea of beginning a seminary to train diocesan priests for the missions. Because political conditions in Germany were unfavourable to Catholics, Fr. Janssen purchased land in nearby Holland to begin his seminary. On September 8, 1875 St. Michael the Archangel Mission House in Steyl, Holland was dedicated. The Society of the Divine Word was born.

Within a few years of its founding, scores of seminarians, priests and brothers were preparing for missionary service at Steyl and the first two missionaries were sent to China. One, Fr. Joseph Freinademetz, was an outstanding missionary who was beatified, along with St. Arnold Janssen, in 1975. In the late part of the 1800’s the Society of the Divine Word experienced tremendous growth and expansion. Mission Houses were opened in Austria and Germany, more mission areas were accepted by the Society.

Fr. Janssen founded two congregations of Sisters. December 8, 1889 marked the founding of the Holy Spirit Sisters, also known as “Blue Sisters”, due to the colour of their dress . The Sisters, carrying the charism of the Founder, began work in many of the areas where Divine Word Fathers and Brothers served, often building and operating schools and hospitals.

In 1896 Fr. Janssen also founded the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, also known as the “Pink Sisters”, a name taken from their pink habit. They spread all over the world, performing their ministry of prayer through perpetual adoration of the Eucharist.

Guiseppe (Joseph) Freinademetz was born on the 15th of April 1852 in Oies, a small hamlet of five houses situated in the Dolomite Alps of northern Italy. The region, known as “South Tyrol,” was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was baptised on the day he was born and inherited from his family a very simple but tenacious faith and a great capacity for work.

While Joseph was studying theology in the diocesan seminary of Bressanone (Brixen), he began to think seriously of the “foreign missions” as a way of life. He was ordained a priest on the 25th of July 1875, and assigned to the community of Saint Martin (Martino di Badia) very near his own home, where he soon won the hearts of his countrymen. However, the call to missionary service did not leave. Only two years after ordination, he came into contact with Fr. Arnold Janssen, founder of a Mission House, which was soon to become known as the “Society of the Divine Word.”

With his Bishop’s permission, Joseph left for the Mission House in Steyl, Netherlands in August 1878. On the 2nd of March 1879, he received his mission cross and departed for China with Fr. John Baptist Anzer, another Divine Word Missionary priest. Five weeks later they arrived in Hong Kong, where they remained for two years, preparing themselves for the next step. In 1881 they travelled to their new mission in South Shantung, a province with 12 million inhabitants and only 158 Christians.

At different times he served as Administrator for the Mission, Rector of the seminary, Spiritual Director for the first group of Chinese priests, and as Provincial Superior. He always exercised his authority in a brotherly fashion, and the respect he received came more from his example and life witness than from the dignity of the office he held.

His life was marked by a desire to become more like a Chinese among the Chinese and in that vein he wrote a letter to his family saying: “I love China and the Chinese; I want to die among them and be laid to rest among them”.

In 1898, Freinademetz was sick with laryngitis and had the beginnings of tuberculosis as a result of his heavy workload and many other hardships. Joseph decided to stay at the mission station at Puoli, knowing well the risk that he was taking. At the end of 1907, while he was serving as Diocesan Administrator for the sixth time, there was a severe outbreak of typhus. Joseph, like a good shepherd offering untiring assistance, visited the many communities until he himself became infected. He went to Taikia, seat of the diocese, where he died on the 28th of January 1908. He was buried at the twelfth station on the Way of the Cross and his grave soon became a site of pilgrimage point for Christians.

Freinademetz learned how to discover the greatness and beauty of Chinese culture and to love deeply the people to whom he had been sent. He dedicated his life to proclaiming the Gospel message of God’s love for all peoples, and to embodying this love in the formation of Chinese Christian communities. He animated these communities to open themselves in solidarity with the surrounding inhabitants. And he encouraged many of the Chinese Christians to be missionaries to their own people as catechists, religious, nuns and priests. His life was an expression of his motto: “The language that all people understand is that of love”.

Divine Word Missionary , member of Society of the Divine Word (S.V.D.), a Roman Catholic religious organization, composed of priests and brothers, founded in 1875 at Steyl, Neth., by Arnold Janssen to work in the foreign missions.

Official Name: Society of the Divine Word

Official Latin Name: Societas Verbi Divini

Abbreviation: SVD

Founding Date: September 8, 1875

Founder: St. Arnold Janssen

Type: Institute of Consecrated Life

Affiliations: Catholic Church

Members: 5,959

Mission Areas: 80 Countries