In the Dehonian Family

The Dehonian family is a communion of vocations that share a project of spirituality and mission proper to the experience of the faith of Father Dehon, who received the grace and mission of enriching the Church with an apostolic religious institute.

Since the beginning of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1878) there has been participation and sharing with associates, which has continued in the Reparatory Association and Adveniat Regnum Tuum (ART).

Since 1985 we have spoken about a ‘communion of vocations’ and ‘Family’: a new reality that is being structured according to the perspective of the Charismatic Families.

The Dehonian charismatic family, officially born during the XXI General Chapter, is made up of ecclesial groups that joined the Charter of Communion in 2003:

• Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SCJ): religious, (also priests, deacons, bishops) who have approved Constitutions and Directory, and recognized authority.
• The Laity: men and women, married and unmarried, who have the Proposed Way of Life for Lay Dehonians as their point of reference:
  1. Year One: Becoming acquainted with dehonian life “Come and see” (John 1.39);
  2. Year Two: Encountering Jesus with fr. Dehon. “He loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2.20);
  3. Year Three: The path of faith of fr. Dehon “They will look on the one whom they have pierced” (John 19.37); 
  4. Year Four: For the life of the World. “That they may have life and have it in abundance”(John 10.10).
• Institutes and other ecclesial forms of consecration, which have their own Rule of Life, authority and coordination.