Posted by We work first and foremost where the gospel has not been preached at all or only insufficiently and where the local church is not viable on its own. Other tasks must be oriented towards these primary aims.
In the choice of our missionary activity priority will be given to those situations where the need is perceived to be particularly acute, where others are not available for the task of evangelization and where people show greater openness to the word of God.
Wherever the church sends us, we are to proclaim the gospel so that all peoples may walk in the way of salvation, freed from the darkness of sin by the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. Missionary work is, therefore, the end and the aim of our Society. All our activities, diverse though they be, are ultimately intended to help the church fulfil its missionary task.
Wherever we work, we always keep in mind that we are missionaries: we seek to keep alive the universal church’s awareness of its missionary responsibility, promote and prepare vocations for missionary service and support the missionary cause of the church both spiritually and materially.
As much as we can, we promote basic communities and apostolic movements (…). We help them especially in the formation of their leaders.
We consider it our duty to promote justice according to the gospel in solidarity with the poor and oppressed.
We devote much care to the education and formation of truly christian families so that they be open to the real needs of the church and the world. (…) We devote ourselves to christian education and formation of youth both in and out of school.
Our presence in an educational institutions aims at making it a place of evangelization (…). We work with the larger educational community: teachers, students and their families. Our educational institutions are open to the poor.
SVD IBP 