The Society of St. Peter Apostle is one of four Pontifical Mission Societies. Its principal aim is to encourage prayer and financial help for vocations to the priesthood and Religious life in the missions. Vocations to the priesthood and Religious life are growing in the Developing World. The typical mission seminarian is from a poor family. The seminarian's family contributes the little it can; his bishop is hard-pressed for funds; the people this young man will serve once ordained a priest are also often struggling merely to survive

The Society of St. Peter Apostle is the instrument of the Holy Father, the bishops and all in the Church to provide spiritual and financial assistance to seminarians of the Developing World.

It's a Fact Today, there are some 30,000 seminarians studying in 500 major seminaries throughout the Developing World.  Support provided through the Society for St. Peter Apostle ensures that these young men may continue to answer the call to serve as priests. Help Answer Their Call.

Missionaries, answering God’s call, leave their homes and go.  Many go to the most devastated areas in the world to serve the people of God.  Often they live in the most difficult conditions to bring help to suffering people . . . to help bring salvation and hope to those most in need.

As Father Carolus Putranto, a newly ordained priest living in Jakarta, Indonesia, reflected on his vocation and his answer to God’s call:  “God asks me to serve His people, to walk with them, and to love them as a sign of my love for Him,” he says.

St. Peter Apostle sends money to support seminarians for the Missions.  In the seminaries students like Frahan Irshaad from Pakistan write about their vocation to the priesthood.  “We come to learn the true spirit of service,” he says.  He describes his own gift of service – teaching catechism to village children, visiting a nearby home for the elderly and giving up his own meager goods to a local shelter for the poor. After his studies, Frahan will go to answer God’s call to care for the poor and bring them Good News and hope. As one of the seminarians put it, “We’ve heard the Good News and we have to speak about it.  Yes, we do this out of conviction that the Good News is for the hearing of all people, everywhere and anywhere.”

The Missionary Union of Priests & Religious is a spiritual apostolate. Unlike the other three Pontifical Mission Societies, this mission society family member does not collect or distribute funds. Its purpose is to educate and inspire priests, Religious men and women, pastoral leaders and those responsible for catechesis and religious education so that they may better animate others to share their faith and to be missionaries themselves, supporting also the missionary work of the Church worldwide.   The Missionary Union of Priests & Religious is a Pontifical Mission Society founded in 1916 by PIME missionary, Father Paolo Manna, in Italy.