May 23rd, 2021
Pentecost Sunday
Dear Students and Parishioners:
As we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost and the official end of the Easter Season, St. Mark’s University Parish will take a second collection for the Holy Ghost Fathers (The Spiritans) as our annual parish mission contribution. Thank you very much for your generosity! While would normally invite a missionary into our midst to speak about the mission, we will instead this year read a letter especially prepared for the weekend. Below is a brief history of this fascinating congregation, who today number about 3000 fathers and brothers.
The Spiritans (aka the Holy Ghost Fathers) were founded in Parish as a religious congregation in 1700. After the French Revolution had decimated the congregation, they were re-founded in the 1840s by a charismatic Jewish convert, Francis Mary Paul Libermann, to serve the most abandoned by society, freed slaves and other people of color. Africa became the focus of the renewed congregation: the Spiritans were the first modern-day missionaries in West Africa (1840s) and in East Africa (1860s). The Spiritans’ charism has been first evangelization of peoples who have never heard the Gospel message, and then, inculturation, adaptation of that message, into the diverse cultures and traditions of these people. They do this by means of establishing a self-sufficient local church with its own clergy, establishing schools and clinics, and aiding in local development projects. The Spiritans came to the United states in the 1870s – known then as the “Holy Ghost Fathers.” They ministered to immigrant and ethnic populations, including African-Americans, French, Germans, Poles, in urban ghettoes and the rural South. For much of the last century the Spiritans have supplied priests for many of St. Katharine Drexel’s works with “the poor and the abandoned”, the marginalized of society. The United States Province of the Congregation began in Pittsburgh by establishing Duquesne University, then expanded to Philadelphia, Harlem in New York, New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, throughout the rural South, and then to the Southwest and California. In keeping with the historical preference of the congregation, American Spiritans began going to East Africa in the 1920s. Having established many local Churches in what is now Tanzania, the Spiritans have been engaged with the Maasai people, the well-known herders in the semi-deserts of the Serengeti Plains, as well as many other tribes. Ministry with refugees from the wars in East Africa has become more a focus. For years we have been working in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Currently American Spiritans, along with confreres from Africa, are working in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, the homeland of many American confreres.
We say goodbye to our FOCUS team (Nora, Tabitha, Tony and Ryan) and wish them all peace, joy and happiness during the summer months. In particular, we thank Ryan Peters for his team leadership during what was a very challenging academic year. St. Mark’s looks forward to welcoming back a new team (hopefully comprised of most of this year’s team members) this coming school year.
Come, Holy Spirit!
Fr John Love, VF
Pastor