The Australian Province of the Society of the Divine Word has celebrated the feast days of the two SVD saints, St Arnold Janssen and St Joseph Freinademetz, with special Masses and social gatherings of confreres, SSpS Sisters, parishioners, lay partners and partners in mission.

St Arnold founded the Society of the Divine Word in September 1875. He later went on to found two orders of Religious Women, the Servant Sisters of the Holy Spirit and the Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.

The Divine Word Missionaries this month celebrated 125 years in Papua New Guinea with a range of celebrations, giving thanks to God for all the blessings bestowed on the mission, the people, and the missionaries themselves.

SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden, was special guest at the celebrations, having made it all the way from Rome, despite the COVID-related difficulties in international travel.

Fr Larry Nemer SVD, who died in Sydney last month, has been remembered as an accomplished scholar and theologian, a dedicated teacher, much-loved family member and a happy priest for more than 60 years.

Fr Larry was born and raised in Chicago and grew up in “a very Polish Catholic neighbourhood”, attending the local Polish Catholic Grammar School.

This month, we have been celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the arrival of the Divine Word Missionaries in Epping, Sydney, which marks the beginning of our mission in Australia.

SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden, has sent a message of congratulations for our confreres, sisters, friends and partners in mission, which I would like to share with you.

The Divine Word Missionaries have celebrated 100 years of missionary presence in Epping, New South Wales, with a special Mass in which they shared with friends and partners in mission the story of the SVD’s arrival in Australia.

The Mass was celebrated by Vice-Provincial, Fr Nick De Groot SVD in the St Arnold Janssen Chapel at Epping on Sunday, October 25.

The Divine Word Missionaries are celebrating 100 years since arriving in Epping, Sydney, a significant development in the mission to Australia and Papua New Guinea, which was overseen by St Arnold Janssen himself.

“The first chapter of the SVD in Australia is a story of hard years, 45 of them: just like the 40 years of Israel in the desert. They were years of going around in circles, wondering do we have a place of our own or a future in this country, or are we simply an adjunct to the German New Guinea Mission of the SVD,” writes Fr Frank Gerry in a history of the SVD AUS Province.