Brother Emili Turú, president of SEDOS

SEDOS was born 50 years ago, as one of the fruits of the Vatican Council. In the house of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) in Nemi, near Rome, a commission met to draft the decree Ad Gentes, which was approved by Vatican II in 1965.

Nine superior generals of missionary congregations took part in these meetings. And they wished to continue reflecting on and exchanging experiences of the missionary activity of the Church. Thus was born SEDOS (Service of Documentation and Study of the Global Mission).

Over the years, SEDOS has grown and been consolidated. At present, it is an open forum for Institutes of Consecrated Life which wish to go further into the meaning of the Mission. It has a web page: http://www.sedosmission.org, publishes a regular Bulletin in various languages, organizes conferences, meetings and, once a year, a seminar lasting some days.

 SEDOS is organized as an Assembly of representatives of the Institutes adhering to it (already more than 100), with an Executive Committee, a Permanent Secretariat and a President, elected by the Assembly for three years. Since December 2013, the President of SEDOS has been Br Emili Turú, a new honour and responsibility for our Superior General.

This year’s Seminar was held in the Ad Gentes Centre at Nemi, from 20 to 24 May. Its theme was: Sent by the God of surprises: new ways of being missionaries.  120 persons took part, coming from more than 40 religious congregations. 

All took place in a most fraternal and international atmosphere: conferences, presentations of experiences, group work, prayer meetings. A simultaneous translation system provided translation into the four official languages of SEDOS: Italian, English, Spanish, and French. And everyone testified to the great richness of the informal meetings during these days.