Somascan Fathers and Brothers (C.R.S.)
"I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." Jn14:18
Somascan Ministries
From the very beginning, for the good of the Church, and in order to respond to the appeals of her shepherds, our Congregation has undertaken various apostolic activities inspired by the love of Christ.
With the same intense love of her Founder, our Congregation continues to devote herself to the material and spiritual care of orphans and the poor, undertakes the human and Christian education of youth and pastoral ministry.
The Somascan Fathers and Brothers continue St. Jerome’s mission by: living in communities pursuing holiness by prayer and ministry to the poor living in humility and kindness loving poverty and work praying to the Crucified Jesus and Mary Mother of the Orphans being either priests or brothers.
Performing different ministries in the Church, such as: care of orphans, disadvantaged, and poor; treatment of at-risk-youth; rehabilitation of drug addicts; education; pastoral care, and spiritual guidance; pastoral care of minorities; foreign missions; youth formation. Working in: group homes; treatment and rehabilitation centers; retreat houses; schools; youth centers; parishes
Somascan Ministries in US
Service to orphans and needy youth
Care of orphans, disadvantaged, and poor; treatment of at-risk youth; rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Schools and Youth Ministry
Educational institutions, and youth ministries.
Parish Ministry
Pastoral Care and spiritual guidance; pastoral care of minorities; foreign missions; parishes.
Apostolic Mission in Our Constitutions and Rules
Our Congregation is directly ordered to apostolic mission.
Her life and structures are permeated by the spiritual and functional needs that flow from it. Each religious is part of it and consecrates his own energies to it, whatever the situation he may be in or the kind of activity obedience assigns him to.
Our Congregation shares in the apostolic mission of the Church through a spirit of humble and active collaboration and by promoting initiatives consistent with her charism.
The Congregation views the service to Christ present in the poor as a characteristic component of her apostolic mission and finds constant inspiration for it in her Founder and tradition, which is authoritatively recognized by the Church.
Each community, in its various areas of apostolate, is to engage itself for the poor and needy youth, make its acquaintances and collaborators sensitive to their needs, and cooperate with the initiatives of the Church and society.
In order to be capable of carrying out her mission everywhere, our Congregation presents particular unity. Such unity is manifested also in her structures and requires apostolic mobility and availability of all her religious.
Apostolic activities are community oriented in our houses. All religious are called to render the Congregation’s charism alive and effective by the richness of gifts they received from the Lord.
It is the Superiors’ duty to discern with spirit of humility and love the personal gifts of their brothers and to promote them for the good of their community and the Congregation.
United by religious consecration as priests or laymen, we participate in one and the same apostolic mission but with different ministries, and cooperate as educators of faith in the common service of charity.
The Congregation suggests to her religious some of those attitudes which inspired St. Jerome and his first companions. She urges all her sons to witness through their deeds their faith and hope in the Lord, to serve the least and the needy with humility and fervour, to welcome them with a simple and benign heart, and to prefer those areas where poverty is more critical. She also encourages them to offer the living nourishment of God’s Word and Sacraments to those to whom she is sent, to help them grow in faith through suitable catechesis, to gradually introduce them to personal and community prayer, to foster their Christian testimony and apostolic commitment in the Church, and to cultivate the seeds of a religious or priestly vocation in those who manifest the signs of the Lord’s call.
The more we are united to the Lord Jesus and docile to the Holy Spirit, the more effective will be our apostolate. Therefore, our religious are to allow themselves to be led exclusively by the love of Christ and by their zeal for their brothers, working in the spirit of obedience and in radical detachment from earthly things and personal interests.