The foundation of the Missionaries of Compassion dates back to May 24th, 2003 – Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians – when His Grace Joji Marampudi, the then Archbishop of Hyderabad approved the preliminary constitutions of the public pious association of Missionaries of Compassion as inspired to Father Jose Kaimlett. The formal ceremony of the ‘foundation’ preceded by the Holy Eucharistic Celebration presided over by Archbishop Joji was held in the Good News Retreat Centre at Kudakkachira, Kerala.
Father Jose Kaimlett always had a very particular attention towards the needy and the suffering and his founding of Missionaries of Compassion is with the particular charism of bringing solace and comfort to the suffering. After contributing with the foundation of Heralds of Good News, Sisters of Good News and many socio-educational and charitable institutions, he desired to dedicate the evenings of his life for this his particular call. His orientation was to set up an organization with committed men and women in caring for the poor and the sick in the example of our Divine Master as explicated in the discourse on the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). He thus, founded the Missionaries of Compassion with the specific purpose of alleviation of the sufferings of any kind of our brethren by compassionate service.
Taking into consideration the observations from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Constitutions of Missionaries of Compassion were revised and approved in the decree on 25th March 2009 by His Grace Archbishop Marampudi Joji. Through the same Decree, the Missionaries of Compassion was canonically erected as a Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Diocesan Right.
As the specific charism of Missionaries of Compassion require particular discernment of one’s call to this mission, the formation of the new missionaries of Compassion is done with utmost care and diligence. For this purpose, formation centers are established in different parts of India and Tanzania.
In accordance with the charism of the Missionaries of Compassion, different educational institutions with hostelling facilities are established to guarantee the elementary formation to the poor children of the villages who otherwise do not have accessibility to education. In fact, the primary purpose of establishing educational institutions is for guaranteeing intellectual, social, spiritual and cultural formation to the poor children without any discrimination on the basis of cast, creed, gender etc.
The Missionaries of Compassion serve also the neediest Local Churches through pastoral assistance, establishment and organization of spiritual retreat centers and establishment of shrines and parish churches. At present our missionaries are serving in 15 Dioceses in India, 4 in Italy, 3 in the United States, 4 dioceses in Tanzania and one in Australia. Another apostolate which the Society undertakes is the care of the elderly and the sick through the establishment of homes for the elderly, hospitals, clinics, medical assistance in the remote villages through mobile medical camps and dispensaries.
The specific mission of bringing solace and comfort to the unfortunate brethren continues to be an urgent task in different parts of the world. Through the decree of November 19 2020, the St. Joseph’s Province of Missionaries of Compassion was formed with its headquarters at Vangayagudem, Eluru.
