Kapitel Jendral ke-17 ini merupakan buah dari satu proses panjang yang juga menjaga benang merah dari kapitel-kapitel jendral sebelumnya. Dalam surat edaran pada 2 Februari 2010, Superior Jendral SVD, P. Antonio Pernia, SVD, antara lain menekankan hal tersebut dalam kutipan berikut:

Our three General Chapters since the start of our new century may be integrally viewed as a process of writing a mission statement for the whole Society.

• The 15th General Chapter of 2000 was a search for reformulating our missionary commitment – faithfully grounded on the original charism that inspired our founder St Arnold Janssen, yet creatively responding to the challenges of a dawning ‘postmodern’ age. It was then that the new mission paradigm, expressed as Prophetic Dialogue, shone as guiding light for us.
• In turn, the 16th General Chapter of 2006 drew the consequent demands of that mission paradigm for the internal and integral dynamics of our Society. In doing so we strove to renew our vision or our self-understanding of who we are as Divine Word Missionaries in the global mission setting of today.
• The main aim for the 17th General Chapter in 2012 will be to draw up an Action Plan for our whole Society – ad extra and ad intra – by building on the spiritual foundation of the last two chapters. Hopefully this will provide a well-defined orientation for the entire Society for the next six years and a guiding agenda for the new General Administration.

Kesadaran ini tertuang dalam tema Kapitel ke-17 yang merupakan pilar ketiga dari trilogi "Dialog Profetis" yang praktis sudah menjadi paradigma misi SVD masa kini, yang akan mengusung tema: ‘From Every Nation, People, and Language’ - Sharing Intercultural Life and Mission.

SVD Indonesia dan Timor Leste juga diharapkan untuk turut memberikan sumbangan yang berarti dalam Kapitel tersebut, mengingat satu dari lima anggota SVD se-dunia berasal dari kedua negara ini.