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Who We Are...
We a brotherhood of diocesan clerics
and lay persons living fraternal life in common, united by the bond of
charity (vinculum charitatis) pursuing the apostolic purpose of their
Society as defined in our statutes. We are dedicated solely to apostolic
works in mission territories. The members of the Society participate in
the Missionary Activity of the Church through the spread of the Gospel
and service of the Church firstly in the Caribbean. As an exclusively
missionary Society of Apostolic Life, the missionary thrust of its members
may be carried out in other mission territories of the World.Ours is a
challenge required by the Gospel: to give our lives for the sake of Christ
and His Mission.
We are simple servants of the Lord - priests and brothers -living
together in a common brotherhood (Common Life) established by the Church
under approved, Passionist-inspired Rule, Statutes and Regulations trusting
in His power and providence, confident in the protection of our principal
patrons: the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Saint Paul of
the Cross.In a manner proper to Societies of Apostolic Life, we take the
vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and make the promise to keep the
Passion of Jesus alive in our missionary hearts.
Mary is the Queen of the Missions. She is there with us, supporting us
in this mandate the Church gave to us when Bishop Boyle founded our institute
which is part of the great Passionist family. Our spirituality is Christocentric,
Missionary and Marian. These three points are like pillars that characterize
us and the place we have in the Church as we strive together to bring
the Kingdom of God in the hearts of all peoples! We work in education,
with abandoned children, parishes and preaching retreats…all avenues
are open for us! A number of us even work in diocesan and supra-diocesan
administration bodies.
The mission Society of Mandeville was founded and erected by the first
Bishop of Mandeville, His Excellency Bishop Paul Boyle, by an Episcopal
decree. In doing so, he fulfilled a wish that had surfaced at the Society
for the Propagation of Faith a number of years earlier. In 2005 the Second
Bishop of Mandeville, His Excellency Bishop Gordon Bennett, S.J,. gave
an Episcopal decree confirming changes in the bylaws of the society and
encouraged its expansion. In 2007, on the 15th of September, the Bishops
of the Island Nation of Jamaica gave a “Decree of Encouragement”
to the Mission Society. Finally, on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph in 2009,
His Excellency Bishop Neil Tiedemann, C.P. gave his Episcopal Assent to
the decisions taken by the General Chapter of the Mission Society blessing
it in its original resolve.
Since this is a Society dedicated to Mission for Life, even though of
Diocesan right, His Eminence, Cardinal Dias, Prefect of the Congregation
for the Evangelization of Peoples advised the Archbishop of Saint Lucia,
the Most Rev. Robert Rivas, O.P., to look to the Mission Society of Mandeville
for help in his Archdiocese and the two other dioceses he looks after
as Apostolic Administrator.
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