Congregation of the Holy Spirit

Claude Poullart des Places

Claude Poullart des Places was born on February 25, 1679, in Rennes, the capital city of Brittany, France, the eldest child and only son of Francis des Places and Jeanne le Meneust. Claude was tutored at home before being enrolled at the age of nine or ten as a day student in the nearby Jesuit College of St. Thomas, thus beginning his lifelong association with the Society of Jesus. Graduating at 16, Claude studied at the University of Caen, Normandy, before graduating at 22 with a Licentiate in Law from the Law School of Nantes.^[1]

In 1701 Claude des Places commenced his studies for the priesthood, as a boarder at the Jesuit College in Paris. However, soon he left his college room to share lodgings with the poorer day students who often struggled to find food, lodgings, and facilities to do homework. It was with a dozen of these gathered round him that he opened the Seminary of the Holy Spirit, which afterwards developed into a religious society.^[1]

Foundation

The Spiritans were founded in Paris on Whit Sunday (Pentecost), 1703. Having opted for the priesthood himself, Claude Poullart des Places wanted to form a religious institute for young men who had a vocation to become priests but were too poor to do so. He became especially interested in poor, deserving students, on whom he freely spent all his own private means and as much as he could collect from his friends. In 1707 Claude was ordained a priest. The work grew rapidly; but the labours and anxieties connected with the foundation proved too much for the frail health of the founder. Father Poullart des Places developed pleurisy and died on 2 October 1709, in the thirty-first year of his age.^[2]

After the founder's death, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit continued to progress; it became fully organized, and received the approbation of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The community, formed in dedication to the Holy Spirit to minister to the poor and to provide chaplains in hospitals, prisons, and schools, soon developed a missionary role – some volunteered for service in the Far East and North America – and by 1765 the Holy See was entrusting it with direct care of South American missions, in colonies such as French Guiana. It sent missionaries to the French colonies, and to India and China, but suffered much from the French Revolution.^[2] At that time, the actual members of the Congregation were only the seminary teachers, thus a relatively small number, even if the new priests who left for mission maintained strong ties with their home seminary. The Congregation has trained 1,300 priests in the years leading up to 1792, when the seminary was suppressed by the French Revolution.

Merger

After the French Revolution, only one member, Father James Bertout, remained. He had survived miraculously, as it were, through a series of vicissitudes – shipwreck on the way to his destined mission in French Guiana, enslavement by the Moors, and a sojourn in Senegal where he had been sold to the English who then ruled there. On his return to France, after peace was restored to the Church, he re-established the congregation and continued its work. But it was found impossible to recover adequately from the disastrous effects of the dispersion caused by the Revolution, and the restored society was threatened with extinction.^[2] The congregation's numbers in Europe declined sharply until 1802, when the Napoleonic government allowed the seminary to reopen and the congregation was asked to focus on supplying priests for work in the French colonies in Africa, the West Indies, and the Indian subcontinent.

In 1848 the Spiritans were joined by a Jewish convert, Fr. Francis Libermann, who in 1842 had founded a society dedicated to the Virgin Mary to serve mainly the emancipated black slaves in the French colonies. Since the object of both societies was the same, the Holy See requested the founder of the new society to merge with the older Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Ven. Francis Mary Libermann was made first superior general of the united societies, and the whole body became so impregnated with his spirit and that of his first followers that he is rightly regarded as the renewer of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, then called also "...under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary" after Libermann and his followers joined the Congregation.

The first care of the new superior general was to organize on a solid basis the religious service of the old French colonies, by securing the establishment of bishoprics and making provisions for the supply of clergy through the Seminary of the Holy Ghost, which was continued on the lines of its original purpose – to serve as a colonial seminary for the French colonies. But the new superior general set himself to cultivate still wider fields of missionary enterprise. There had already been opened to him the vast domain of Africa, which he was, practically, the first to enter, and which was to be henceforth the chief field of labour of his disciples.

The taking-up of the African missions by Ven. Francis Mary Libermann was due to the initiative of two American prelates, under the encouragement of the first Council of Baltimore. Already in 1833, Dr. England, Bishop of Charleston, had drawn the attention to the West Coast of Africa, and had urged the sending of missioners to those benighted regions. This appeal was renewed at the Council of Baltimore, and the assembled Fathers commissioned the Rev. Dr. Barron, who was then Vicar-General of Philadelphia, to undertake the work at Cape Palmas. That zealous priest went over the ground carefully for a few years, and then repaired to Rome to give an account of the work, and to receive further instructions. He was consecrated bishop and appointed Vicar-Apostolic of the Two Guineas. But as he had only one priest and a catechist at his disposal, he repaired to France to search for missioners. Ven. Francis Mary Libermann supplied him at once with seven priests and three coadjutor brothers.

The deadly climate played havoc with the inexperienced zeal of the first missionaries. All but one perished in the course of a few months and Dr. Barron returned in despair to America, where he devoted himself to missionary work. He died from the effects of his zeal during the yellow-fever epidemic in Savannah, in 1853, aged 52. Father Libermann and his disciples retained the African mission; new missionaries volunteered to go out and take the places of those who had perished; and gradually there began to be built up the series of Christian communities in Africa which form the distinctive work of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. It has proved a work of continued sacrifice. Nearly 700 missionaries have laid down their lives in Africa before 1913. Still, the spiritual results have compensated for it all. Where there was not a single Christian among the thirty millions of people who inhabit the districts confided to the Spiritans, there are in 1913 some hundred thousand solid, well-instructed Catholics. These Christians are spread over the Diocese of Angola and the eight Vicariates of Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Gaboon, Ubangi (or French Upper Congo), Loango (or French Lower Congo), on the West Coast; and Northern Madagascar, Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, on the East Coast. There are, moreover, the Prefectures of Lower Nigeria, French Guinea, Lower Congo (Landana), and missions at Bata in Spanish West Africa and at Kindou in the Congo Independent State.

Besides the missions in Africa, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit started missions in Mauritius, Réunion, the Rodriguez Islands, Trinidad, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, and Amazonia, while conducting some very important educational institutions, such as the French Seminary at Rome, the colonial seminary at Paris, the colleges of Blackrock, Rockwell, and Rathmines in Ireland, St. Mary's College in Trinidad, the Holy Ghost College of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the three colleges of Braga, Porto, and Lisbon in Portugal.

20th century

By the early 20th century the congregation was organized into the following provinces: France, Ireland, Portugal, United States, and Germany. These several provinces, as well as all the foreign missions, are under the central control of a superior general, residing in Paris, aided by two assistants and four consultors – all chosen by the general chapter of the congregation. The whole society was under the jurisdiction of the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. Houses have been opened in England, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands, intended to develop into distinct provinces, so as to supply the colonies of these respective countries with an increase of missionaries.

The province of the United States, founded in 1873, comprised 74 professed fathers, 19 professed scholastics, 30 professed coadjutor brothers. It had a novitiate and senior scholasticate at Ferndale in the Diocese of Hartford, and an apostolic college at Cornwells near Philadelphia. The main object of these institutions is to train missionaries for among the poor, especially ethnic minorities. The province had already established two missions for ethnic minorities, one in Philadelphia and the other at Rock Castle near Richmond, planning to establish more. Moreover, missions for various nationalities were established in the following dioceses, at the urgent request of the respective bishops: Little Rock, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Grand Rapids, La Crosse, Philadelphia, Providence, and Harrisburg. In all there were twenty-three houses.

Statistics for the entire congregation in April 1908 showed 195 communities, 722 fathers, 210 professed scholastics, 655 professed brothers, 230 novices, and 595 aspirants. About half the professed members were engaged in the African missions. The congregation was slowly but steadily forming a native clergy and sisterhood in Africa. A dozen native priests and about one hundred native sisters were working in the several missions.

In Rome, on April 24, 1979, Pope John Paul II presided over the beatification ceremony for Jacques-Désiré Laval, the first member of the Spiritans to be so honoured.

Marcel Lefebvre

On July 26, 1962, the Chapter General of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit elected the former Archbishop of Dakar, Marcel Lefebvre, as Superior General. Lefebvre was widely respected for his experience in the mission field^[3] and his ability to deal with the Roman Curia. On August 7, 1962, Lefebvre was given the titular archiepiscopal see of Synnada in Phrygia.

Lefebvre first instituted a major reform of the seminaries run by the Spiritans. He transferred several Modernist (relativistic, liberal) professors to non-educational posts. He ordered books by certain modern theologians, including Yves Congar and Marie-Dominique Chenu, to be removed from the seminary library, finding them too Neo-Modernistic. (One book of Chenu was inserted into the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in the 1942.^[4])

Lefebvre was increasingly criticized by influential pro-reform members of his large religious congregation who considered him out-of-step with modern Church leaders and the demand of bishops' conferences, particularly in France, for drastic revision and reform.^[5] A general chapter of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit was convened in Rome in September 1968. The first action of the chapter was to name several moderators to lead the chapter's sessions instead of Lefebvre.^[6] Finding it impossible to lead the congregation after being undermined, Lefebvre then handed in his resignation as Superior General to Pope Paul VI.^[7]

He would later say that it had become impossible for him to remain Superior of an institute that no longer wanted him nor listened to him. To replace him, on October 28 a new superior general was elected who proved willing to allow the demands for reforms. Lefebvre's tenure as Superior saw the congregation at its zenith in terms of numbers, missions, and missionary activity. Lefebvre left the Spiritans and went on to found the Society of Saint Pius X in Écône (Diocese of Fribourg), Switzerland.

Today

The Spiritans are active in some 57 countries. They are often associated with schools and chaplaincy, and missionary work. Some famous English-speaking Spiritans in the late 20th-century include Fathers Vincent J. Donovan, Adrian Van Kaam, and Henry J. Koren. Father Donovan (1926–2000) wrote Christianity Rediscovered. He worked in Tanzania, most notably among the Maasai, from 1955-73. Father Van Kaam was notable for his work in psychology and spirituality. He also wrote a key work on one of the Spiritan's founder's Venerable Father Libermann. Father Koren was a historian of the Congregation and a philosopher.

Kenya

• St. Mary's School, Nairobi, founded in the Parklands area of Nairobi in 1939 from Blackrock College in Dublin, Ireland.

Canada

• Neil McNeil High School
• Francis Libermann Catholic High School
• Regina Pacis Catholic Secondary School - closed 2002
• Marian Academy - closed 2002

Ghana

• Province of Ghana. The Spiritan mission in Ghana was started in 1971 by a group of Irish Spiritans who left Nigeria after the civil war. With more than forty years of Spiritan mission, Province of Ghana continues to flourish with more than 100 members working both at home and abroad.

Ghana is a democratic constitutional republic divided into ten administrative regions, with a multi-ethnic population of around 24 million as of 2010. Fourteen percent of the population is estimated to be Catholic. Located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in West Africa, Ghana has a land mass of 238,535 km2, with 2,093 kilometres of international land borders. Its varied geography includes savannas, woodlands, forests, a coastal line, springs, cave systems, mountains, estuaries, wildlife parks, and nature reserves. The coast of Ghana, which consists mainly of sandy beaches, stretches 350 miles and includes a rich assortment of culturally significant castles, forts, ports and harbors. In Ghana, Spiritans are ministering in sixteen parishes in nine of the eighteen dioceses. Many of the parishes are in a situation of primary evangelization in rural and deprived areas. The Province gives attention to basic and primary education in all of its twelve parishes. The Spiritan Technical Vocational School in Ada Nkwame, the Computer school in Kumasi, the Libermann Senior High School in Elubo, and the Spiritan University College in Ejisu are all examples of the Spiritan commitment to evangelization through education. Thirty-five Spiritans from Ghana are on mission outside their home country in fifteen different countries.

Germany

See Heilig-Geist-Gymnasium

Ireland

The Spiritans run six schools in Ireland:

• Blackrock College was founded by the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1860.
• Rockwell College was founded in 1864 and is located near Cashel, County Tipperary.
• St. Michael's College, Dublin, was bought by Blackrock College in 1944 as a second feeder school with Willow Park. In December 1970, St Michael's officially became independent from Blackrock College.
• St Mary's College, Rathmines, Dublin, was founded in 1892.
• Templeogue College was founded in 1966 and is located in Templeogue, Dublin.
• Kimmage Development Studies Centre (KDSC) – Holy Ghost Fathers Missionary College, Kimmage Manor, Dublin, was founded in 1974.
• Kimmage Mission Institute (KMI) – Institute of Theology and Cultures, Kimmage Manor, Dublin, founded 1991, moved to Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in 2003.

Notable Irish Spiritans include William Patrick Power, first head of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh; John Charles McQuaid, forceful Archbishop of Dublin 1940–73; Fr Denis Fahey, founder of Maria Duce; Fr Aengus Finucane, who organised food shipments to the Ibo during the Biafra War; John C. O'Riordan, former Bishop of Kenema, Sierra Leone; Robert Ellison, current Bishop of Banjul, Gambia.

Trinidad and Tobago

The Spiritans run these schools in Trinidad and Tobago:

• Saint Mary's College established in 1863
• Our Lady of Fatima College established in 1945
• Saint Anthony's College (Trinidad)

United Kingdom

The Spiritans came to Britain 200 years after their foundation when the anti-Catholic government in France was starting to close convents and monasteries. In 1903 they rented Prior Park, a mansion near Bath in Somerset as a refuge abroad. Before returning to France three years later, the Bishop of Liverpool allowed them to open Castlehead at Grange-over-Sands, Lancashire, as a junior seminary.

Father John Rimmer from Widnes had become the first British Spiritan, having joined them in France in 1894. He was appointed as Superior of Castlehead and gradually under his leadership the school flourished and boys were put through their secondary studies before going to France for the novitiate and training for the missionary priesthood.

In 1939, the Spiritans brought a property in Wiltshire to act as a senior seminary but the house was requisitioned as a military hospital during the Second World War. In 1940, 30 senior seminarians escaped from France aboard a Polish troopship. The refugees from France shared Castlehead for two years with the junior students. Then they moved to Sizergh Castle near Kendal and continued their studies for the priesthood there. On an average, four new priests were ordained every year and posted to missions in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and East Africa. When the war ended, the senior students moved into Upton Hall near Newark.

In 1947, a house was acquired in Bickley, Kent, and used as headquarters for the English Province and a centre for late vocations. Ex-servicemen were applying to join and some needed help to complete their studies prior to going to the novitiate. In the early 1990s with elderly missionaries living longer and returning home, the Bickley community centre of Provincial administration was converted to a retirement home. The Administration moved to Northwood, in North West London, and then to Burnt Oak, north London.^[9]

Recognising the importance of Scotland, as both a place for missionary vocations as well as support for missionary work, in 1956 the Holy Ghost Fathers set up a community at Uddingston on the outskirts of Glasgow. In 1970 the Congregation transferred to the Old parish house and church in Carfin. It was also opposite the Carfin Grotto, a place of Catholic pilgrimage which had been established during the 1920s. The Carfin community continues to serve the people of Scotland and witness to Missionary commitment.

After the Second Vatican Council the various missionary societies in England pooled their resources and started the Missionary Institute, London (MIL) in 1969. As one of the founding members, the Holy Ghost Fathers closed their center in Willesborough, moving their students to London and opened a community house in Aldenham Grange, near Watford, Hertfordshire.

From the late 1980s there was a decision to concentrate on work with young people, in order to develop strong committed young catholic leaders. The "Just Youth" ministry was established in order to foster these aims. It provides chaplaincy facilities for several high schools in the Salford Diocese and undertakes outreach work in schools throughout the north of England. Since early 2008 Just Youth has been based in Lower Kersal, Salford, at the former Catholic University Chaplaincy, now re-opened as the Spiritan Youth Centre.

From the Salford community has also grown the group of Lay Spiritans. These are married or single Catholics inspired by the Spiritan way of life and wishing to share in it. They bring their professional skills to the various ministries.

In 2001, two Lay Spiritans of the Salford community founded Revive, a voluntary social work agency committed to the long-term support of asylum seekers and refugees. This work, in conjunction with the Catholic Diocese of Salford and the British Red Cross, involved the support of all asylum seekers, including the destitute whose asylum claims had been refused. Revive also had a significant role in the training of student social workers to work with asylum seekers and refugees in partnership with Manchester University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Salford University. Revive is based in Salford and is considered to be a missionary work of the Congregation, who are its principal funders.^[10]

In 2009, a report from Caritas - Social Action highlighted the work of Revive as an example of good practice with asylum seekers and refugees in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.^[11]

Lay Spiritan involvement in the management of Revive ceased in 2009. The project is now managed by a Spiritan priest.^[12]

One former Lay Spiritan, Ann-Marie Fell, was the recipient of a Catholic Women of the Year award in 2010 for her work as a prison chaplain.^[13]

The UK Spiritan Provincial Fr Philip Marsh CSSp spent much of his time travelling and meeting with the various communities and works of the Province, with a base in Whitefield, Bury, where the small Provincial Residence Community is located.

United States

Duquesne University, founded in 1878 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only Spiritan institution of higher education in the world.

The French Spiritans' first contact in North America was in Acadia between 1735–1763 under Father Louis Bouic. Unfortunately, the settlers and natives of this region were caught in the political and military clash between the French and the British. One of the most famous Spiritans was Fr. Maillard, named "the Apostle of the Micmacs". After arduous learning over eight years, he wrote the first Micmac grammar. Through this he was able to introduce to them the Catholic faith which they kept even without a priest for a long time.

Father Maillard tried to attenuate the savagery of brutal warfare (instigated at times by the French and the British). Many more missionaries, such as John Le Loutre, came but later had to flee with the Micmacs as the British conquered these areas. Fr. Maillard himself was captured in Louisbourg and deported to a Boston jail.

It was in 1794 that a Spiritan refugee of the French Revolution in Guiana became a highly respected missionary in Baltimore. He started a new mission in the U.S. and two others followed a few years later. However, it was only when Archbishop Purcell repeatedly asked (between 1847–1851) for personnel to staff a seminary in Cincinnati that Spiritans steadily entered. Other dioceses such as Savannah, Florida, Philadelphia, and Natchez requested for personnel too.

For the sake of maintaining a community life the Spiritans concentrated on the Pittsburgh area. Despite knowing of four failures of setting up a Catholic college in Pittsburgh, the Spiritans persisted in setting up an institution which became Duquesne University.

The Spiritans in America concentrate on work among immigrants, black parishes, and education in Duquesne University along with Holy Ghost Preparatory School (near Philadelphia). Historically, they have supplied missionaries for Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Puerto Rico, Latin America, and Ethiopia. Today, Spiritans are focusing on Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and Taiwan. In 1964 there was a separation between a Western Province and an Eastern Province (at the Mississippi River) but both provinces are being joined. Candidates in theological formation are sent to Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where several Spiritans teach.

Vietnam

The Spiritans arrived in Vietnam in September 2007. In September 2017, the Congregation celebrated its 10th anniversary in Vietnam. At present, the Congregation have three communities in Ho Chi Minh City. There are more than 40 members. Website: http://www.spiritans.vn/