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We are an international congregation of Catholic missionary priests and Brothers founded in 1875 by Arnold Janssen. We work primarily where the Gospel has not been preached at all or only insufficiently and where the local Church is not yet viable on its own.

In the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 16 Paul had a vision of a Macedonian who urged him in these words: “Come across to Macedonia and help us.”  That was the way in which the Holy Spirit inspired the early Christian Church to launch its missionary apostolate to Asia Minor and Europe.  The call for the SVD to go to the Gold Coast came in 1938 when the Society of the African Missions, the SMA, which had pioneered in bringing the Catholic faith to West Africa, sought help for its missionary work in the Gold Coast. At that time they were so overwhelmed with the task of the mission in this country that they were unable to develop the area surrounding the capital city of Accra. It was evident that Accra would become the center of government, of business and of industry. At that time in the whole area that later became the Accra Diocese there were only two residential mission stations.  Evangelization had only started in the Akim and Kwahu Districts, and the Church had hardly touched the Krobo and the Afram Plains.