Missionary Society of St Paul (Malta)
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| Abbreviation | M.S.S.P. |
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| Motto | "Master, I will follow you wherever you go" "If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labour" |
| Formation | 30 June 1910 |
| Founder | Joseph De Piro |
| Founded at | Malta |
| Type | Catholic religious order |
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Superior General
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Fr. Mark Grima mssp |
| Website | http://missionarysocietyofstpaul.org |
The Missionary Society of St. Paul (Maltese: Soċjeta' Missjunarja ta' San Pawl, MSSP) is a Roman Catholic missionary congregation of priests and brothers, founded in Malta in 1910 by Mgr. Joseph De Piro. According to its Constitutions, "the purpose of the Society is the evangelisation and the implanting of the Church in missionary lands known as mission Ad Gentes. Consequently its apostolic endeavours in those countries not strictly considered missionary must be orientated towards promoting and creating an awareness of missionary activity."
Founding a missionary congregation was the desire of Joseph De Piro which he had from a young age. He tried to enlist the help of others in realizing it and eventually settled with the support of a few mentors. On 30 June 1910, De Piro accepted the first two members, Joseph Caruana and John Vella. Eventually Vella left the Society after being ordained a priest. Caruana, who remained a lay brother, became, in 1927, its first missionary serving for 48 years in Ethiopia until his death.
The Society got its first Diocesan approval in 14 November 1921. The founder also managed to secure a Motherhouse for the young congregation before he died suddenly on 17 September 1933, at the relatively young age of 55. His fledging Society was still too weak to survive on its own. So, for a time, superiors external to congregation were assigned to guide it, until in 1948 the Society had its first Superior General from its own members, Fr Michael Callus.
Br Joseph Caruana served in a mission belonging to the Maltese Capuchins. The Society had its own first mission in 1948 when two members of the Society went to Sydney, Australia, working as Maltese chaplains. Then, in 1959, the Society was present in Ontario, Canada, and in 1973 in Detroit, U.S.A., again working among Maltese migrants.
The Society expanded towards Latin America when in 1968 it opened its first community in the province of Arequipa, Peru. Then, in 1982, when Fr Stanley Tomlin was Superior General, the Society opened its first mission in Asia when it sent two missionaries to Faisalabad, Pakistan.
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Wikipedia