Who are we?

The Redemptorists are a religious congregation. We live in community and are passionate about preaching the Gospel, especially to those who feel abandoned and live on the edges of church and society. The Redemptorists were founded by St Alphonsus Liguori among the poor and abandoned in the mountains of Southern Italy in 1732.

There are more than 5,000 Redemptorists working in 78 countries in six continents. XXIV General Chapter (2009) decided that there are five Conferences in our Congregation.

We have 18 Units in our Conference (14 Provinces; 2 Vice-Provinces; 2 Regions). There are more than 1500 Redemptorists in the Conference of Redemptorists of Europe. We have 185 communities. We are working in 22 countries: Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia (in Europe and in Asia), and in Asia: Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Iraq.

Most of us are Roman Catholics but we also have members among the Greek Catholic Churches of Ukraine and Slovakia, the Chaldean Church of Iraq and of Lebanon and their Diasporas.

Fidelity to our Redemptorist charism demands that we continually discern where the most abandoned are, especially the poor, and how we are called to serve them. The Redemptorist Conference of Europe provides a forum in which this discernment can be done.

We are sent to Explicitly Proclaim the Word in an increasingly secular Europe to:

  1. To all those affected by increased Secularization and of Contemporary Human Life Issues (of life and death, of sexuality, of relationships, of the new realities of family life, of addiction, promotion of social justice etc).
  2. To all those who are trying to stay faithful to the Church, and those who are estranged from the Church, at a very challenging time in the Church’s history.
  3. To young people and young adults.
  4. To ‘migrants’ and to ‘those left behind.’

In our respective Units and also at Conference level, these are some of the various ways in which we engage in ministry:

  • Popular Missions / Novenas / Retreats.
  • Shrine Ministry.
  • Missionary Parishes.
  • Mission Stations (for longer term pastoral ministry).
  • Youth & Young Adult Ministry.
  • Theological Reflection on Moral Issues.
  • Communications Ministry: mass media (TV, radio, web, etc.).
  • Social Ministries.
  • Cooperation with other Congregations, etc.