Missionaries of the Poor (MOP), the Jamaica-based religious institute of brothers that offers free service to needy people, will take a historic step in its 33-year history this Sunday when it is elevated by the Vatican to an Institute of Pontifical Right.

The elevation was approved by Pope Francis on November 14, 2014 on the recommendation of Archbishop of Kingston Charles Dufour and ratified by one of the Catholic Church’s oldest authorities — the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

“It’s a huge thing for us,” said Father Richard Ho Lung who, with two colleague priests — fathers Brian Kerr and Hayden Augustine — founded Missionaries of the Poor on July 19, 1981 in Kingston.

“We will be the first religious community in the Caribbean to be elevated by the Vatican,” Ho Lung added.

Institutes of Pontifical Right report directly to the Pope who, according to information posted on Catholic Answers, has general oversight on matters including those that are constitutional. This compares to Institutes of Diocesan Right that are governed by bishops.

“This means that they are the respective people to whom appeals for dispensation are made, and also the authority who can provide ratification of elections and other matters,” Catholic Answers explains.

Yesterday, MOP described the pending elevation as a tremendous moment for Jamaica, for the Catholic Church, the Christian faith, and the general public who have supported it over the years.

“It is a call from the Vatican to be a religious order of universal proportions, to give authentic witness to the whole world and the whole community of Christians everywhere of what it is to live out the Christian faith in our times and age and to bring hope and joy in the name of Christ,” MOP said.

Missionaries of the Poor, which has 560 brothers, runs missions in Jamaica, Kenya, Uganda, India, Haiti, The Philippines, the USA, and, more recently East Timor.

Last September, the Jamaica Observer reported that the service provided by the priests and their growing army of young Catholic brothers to tens of thousands of needy humans — some afflicted with leprosy and HIV — has won them so much respect and recognition that they have been invited to open missions in Trinidad and Tobago, and Vietnam. They are also looking seriously at setting up operations in Tanzania.

The brothers, MOP said, do not take money or subsidies from the governments of countries in which they work.

“The members take vows of poverty, celibacy, obedience and give free service to the poor. They offer their lives to the Lord and to the poor. They receive no salary,” MOP pointed out.

Basically, the vows are taken, in the first instance for six years, three years of which they live in what MOP terms early formation.

After nine years, they take their final vows for life.

The brothers live and work in the poorest areas with the homeless and destitute, giving them shelter, meals, beds, medicines, clothes, water, light, and spiritual counselling.

On Sunday, the Holy See’s decree will be read by Archbishop Nicola Girasoli, apostolic nuncio to the episcopal conference of the English, French and Dutch territories of the Caribbean, in a service at Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kingston, starting at 4:00 pm.