For some Mangyan children in the mountain communities of southern Oriental Mindoro, going to school once meant walking for hours before reaching a classroom.
Divine Word missionary Fr. Vicente Castro, SVD, who spent six decades serving the Church as a missionary, theologian, mentor and community builder, died early September 25 in Quezon City, the Philippines. He was 85.
Fr. Peter Phan Thai Hien, SVD, walks for hours through rugged mountain terrain to reach Catholic communities scattered across remote parts of Madagascar, where some mission stations receive a priest only a few times a year.
For Fr. Edgar G. Javier, SVD, mission was not simply something he studied, taught or preached. It was the way he lived.
“Life is mission. Mission is life.”
Filipino Divine Word missionary and prominent missiologist Fr. Edgar Javier, SVD, who devoted five decades to missionary work, priestly formation and theological education, died on September 8 at the age of 77.
A prayer service was held on August 14, 2025, at Our Lady of Charity Parish, Kandhamal, in the Indian state of Odisha, to honor the memory of Emeritus Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, SVD, of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, on his 9th death anniversary
The Society of the Divine Word (SVD) is set to mark its 150th anniversary with an International Conference on Mission, gathering theologians, missionaries, scholars, and activists from across the world.
After long years of service with the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), Brother Valentin Gruener passed away on September 14 at a hospital in Abra, a province more than 400 kilometers south of Manila.
