The Society of the Divine Word is popularly known as SVD (Societas Verbi Divini) and is founded by St Arnold Janssen in 1875 in Steyl (German - Holland border) to proclaim the Word of God in areas where it is not preached at all or insufficiently preached. SVD members landed in India in 1932 and began their work in Madhya Pradesh and today spread out in various parts of our country. We are working in 75 countries of the world with 6000 Priests and professed Brothers.
As part of our evangelical mission our congregation began this Retreat centre to re-evangelise people of this region.
On October 1, 2004, the administrative block and the Twin chapels were blessed by Rev. Aloysius Paul D’souza, Bishop of Mangalore and inaugurated by Fr.Gregory Pinto SVD, Provincial Superior of India-Mumbai Province. The retreat centre is named as Divine Call Centre, Karnad, Mulki.