SVD
Generalate

Indeed, Steyl is a highly significant place, for it was there, on 8 September 1875, that Saint Arnold Janssen established the Societas Verbi Divini with the inauguration of a mission house. As you now return home to the place of your holy founder’s shrine, you can rightly look back over the past century-and-a-half with joy, and express deep gratitude to Almighty God for the many graces and blessings you have received. I too join in your act of thanksgiving, for the fruitfulness of your missionary activity over these years has been of profound benefit to the universal Church.

By returning to your roots and reflecting on your origins, especially the inspiration of Saint Arnold, who bequeathed a sublime charism based on the power of Christ the Divine Word, you can surely take renewed encouragement from the missionary impulse that, from your very beginnings, led your brothers to set out, in imitation of the apostles, in order to proclaim the saving Word to the furthest parts of the world, not least to China. Indeed, the ecclesial seeds they sowed have continued to bear much fruit, to which today’s widespread and numerous communities of the Congregation bear eloquent testimony.

Yet, appreciating our forebears does not limit our horizons; on the contrary, it expands them, enabling us to move forwards with greater wisdom and fresh energy! How fitting, then, that this anniversary celebration is taking place on the Solemnity of Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit who came upon the disciples in Jerusalem, and who led your earliest brothers to follow the Lord’s call to spread the Gospel to all nations (cf. Mt 28:19-20), is the same Spirit who will guide you still to discern new and creative ways of bringing God’s saving Word to the men and women of today.

In this regard, the theme you have chosen for your commemoration, “Witnessing to the Light: from Everywhere, for Everyone“, is a timely reminder that the illuminating and liberating Message of the Good News is truly for all peoples. Indeed, when Jesus “sends the apostles to invite people to the banquet which a man had prepared, he tells them, ‘Go out and bring in everyone’, young and old, healthy and infirm, righteous and sinners. Everyone, everyone, everyone!” (Address at the Welcome Ceremony of World Youth Day, Lisbon, 3 August 2023). This is no merely abstract sentiment, but a profoundly practical and spiritual principle for guiding your personal, pastoral and missionary activity each day. What is more, you can always respond to your religious vocation with joy and confidence, for the Lord left a pledge to his disciples in these words: “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

My prayer, then, for all of you, especially in this Jubilee Year focussed on the virtue of hope, is that today and in the many years to come, you will be full of enthusiasm and hope as you continue to bring the saving Word of God to the furthest reaches of the world. To the margins and peripheries, to migrants and the voiceless, to the poorest and sickest in our midst. To everyone! For we are indeed all brothers and sisters — Fratelli tutti.

With these sentiments, and entrusting each member of the Society of the Divine Word to the intercession of Saint Arnold Janssen and Mary, Mother of the Church, I cordially impart my Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, joy and peace in Jesus the Incarnate Word.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 8 April 2025