Our Name & Origin

The Missionaries of Charity Fathers are the youngest branch on a very large MC “tree”. They were born during a conversation between Fr. Joseph Langford, MCF cofounder, and St. Teresa of Calcutta on October 13, 1984 — the anniversary of the last apparition of Our Lady of Fatima (1917).

However, our existence is spiritually linked to December 21, 1948, the first day on which Mother Teresa went walking in the slums. Her diary explains the experience as follows:

“We went to Taltala Bazar, and there was a very poor woman dying I think of starvation more than TB (tuberculosis). What poverty … I wonder how long she will last … She asked a few times for confession and Holy Communion. I felt my own poverty there too – for I had nothing to give that poor woman -I did everything that I could …” (Come Be My Light, p. 132)

We aim to complement and complete the service of the MC Society to the poorest of the poor.

Formula of the Society of the Missionaries of Charity

In the 1980’s Mother Teresa compared the five branches of the MC family to the five wounds suffered by Jesus. Each branch – active brothers and sisters, contemplative brothers and sisters, and priests – exists in relation to the Mystical Body of Christ. This is what she wrote:

“Missionaries of Charity
Five wounds of Jesus.
In one Body Jesus.
The two wounds in the Hands.
Sisters and Brothers – Active.
Serving with active love the Poor.
The two wounds in the feet.
Sisters and Brothers – Contemplative.
Going in search of souls by their word, prayer and penance.
The wound in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Priests satiating the thirst of Jesus
By having (loving) their Priesthood
By completing the work of the Sisters and Brothers –
Of the Poor they serve.
That is why to show and live fully that
Oneness we light five lights at Adoration,
Each separately – yet adoring One Jesus –
By the one M.C. Society – Sisters, Brothers, Fathers
Make one Body Jesus.
One way, one life
Working at the salvation and sanctification
Of the Poorest of the Poor.
To be able to do this – we need a deep life of prayer, community life,
Together with the material and spiritual service
Of the Poorest of the Poor.

— Mother Teresa, MC

Our Vows

The Missionaries of Charity Fathers is a clerical religious Institute of diocesan right, whose members bind themselves to the Lord and to the service of His Church by the profession of the Evangelical Counsels of Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience, and the Fourth Vow of Wholehearted and Free Service to the Poorest of the Poor.

Our Institute, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, is committed to carrying on her charism within the ministerial priesthood, exercised in the service of the Poor as privileged bearers of the mystery of Jesus' presence and passion in the world today.

Our Identity & Activity

Our name, Missionaries of Charity Fathers, expresses both our identity and activity in the Church:

  • We continue the mystery of the Father's sending of Jesus to save and sanctify the world, bringing His glad tidings to the Poor. (Lk. 4:18)

  • It is above all God's love for us, His "thirst" for us and our love, that we are to proclaim.

  • As priests, we are to allow Jesus to continue seeking out the Poor, the suffering, and those who hunger for God, binding their wounds through our presence and sacramental ministry: in mission areas, hospitals, prisons, soup kitchens, shelters of our Sisters and Brothers, in homes, in the slums and on the streets.