It is the first missionary society founded specifically to preserve the Catholic faith among Italians who have emigrated and their descendants, and to provide for their spiritual well-being and, insofar as possible, their temporal needs (Constitutions, ch. 1, no. 2). Like all other religious activities in favor of emigration, it depends directly on the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
At present it numbers more than 500 professed religious, of whom over 200 work in the missions and 200 are engaged in their formation. There are 87 mission centers, distributed as follows: United States of America 37, Brazil 30, France 7, Argentina 6, Belgium 3, Switzerland 3, Luxembourg 1. For the training of missionaries the Pious Society maintains 5 apostolic schools, of which three are in Italy, one in Brazil, and one in the United States, with a total of 600 pupils; three novitiates, six colleges for the formation of religious, of which 3 are in Italy, 2 in the United States, and 1 in Brazil. Free from any nationalistic aims, the Missionaries of Saint Paul have worked and continue to work, going with the emigrants, to fulfill the mandate received from their founder: “To bring wherever an Italian emigrant may be the comfort of faith and the smile of the homeland.”