St. Patrick's Society for Foreign Missions
The St. Patrick's Society for Foreign Missions ( Latin : Societas Sancti Patritii pro Missionibus ad Exteros, English : St. Patrick's Society for the Foreign Missions, abbreviation : SPS ) is a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life . The parent company is located in Kiltegan, County Wicklow, Ireland . Therefore the religious priests were also known as "Kiltegan Fathers".
history
founding
The origin of the community was the call of the Irish missionary Bishop Joseph Shanahan CSSp (1871-1943), Prefect Apostolic of sub-Niger , to the seminarians of the Seminary St Patrick's College in Maynooth , after their ordination as missionaries to come to Africa. In the 1920s, twelve young priests decided to work in Africa for five years, including Patrick Joseph Whitney (1894–1942), a priest of the Ardagh diocese . Some of them came to the conviction that the mission required not only a temporary commitment, but a long-term missionary work. In order to build such a missionary community, John Hughes, a merchant who had become wealthy through the tea trade, gave them his property at High Park near Kiltegan. A group of young priests met there in 1930 to prepare for the mission in Africa . In late 1930, Patrick J. Whitney and seven other priests went to mission in Nigeria .
Missions
On March 17, 1932, St. Patrick's Day , Patrick Joseph Whitney, his cousin Father Patrick Francis Whitney and Francis Hickey founded the St. Patrick's Society . She gave herself the motto “Caritas Christi Urget Nos” (“The love of Christ urges us ...”) ( 2 Cor 5,14 EU ). The first superior became Patrick Joseph Whitney.
On December 9, 1958, the Mission Society received the Decretum laudis from the Holy See . As early as 1939, Kiltegan sent over 60 young missionaries to Africa. The small town had meanwhile developed into an education and training center for the "Kiltegan Fathers". The independent priestly training for African and domestic priestly candidates began as early as 1940 . A seminary was built next to the education center . First the missionaries worked in Nigeria and Kenya and later, at the request of Rome, from 1960 onwards in Brazil and Grenada .
The number of applicants had risen sharply since 1950. A second house was opened in Kiltegan, and the number of priests in the Mission Society grew to over 200. In September 1997 the company opened two further seminars in Nigeria and Kenya and in January 2000 it was able to send several of its own students to the University of Nairobi to begin studying philosophy and medicine .
organization
The main task of the mission society is the spreading and preaching of the gospel for all people, especially for the poor, sick and starving.
The organization participates in many projects, in 2002 it had 382 members, 333 of them priests. The Order maintains branches in 18 countries, including: Cameroon , Kenya, Malawi , Sudan , Zambia , Zimbabwe , South Africa , Uganda , Grenada, Brazil, USA , Italy , England , Scotland , Wales and Ireland.
In addition to its own seminaries, colleges and monastery institutions, the order owns two houses in which retreats are offered. In Tearmann Spirituality Center in Glendalough six-day spiritual courses are conducted while the Slí to Chroi in the beautiful landscape around Kiltegan holidays offers. The Society has published nine issues of Africa Magazine annually since 1938 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Our history: 1920s - Beginnings ... , accessed April 1, 2019.
- ↑ Simone Delochan: A Kiltegan in Grenada . In: Catholic News , Port of Spain, March 17, 2019, p. 18.
- ↑ Our history: 1932 - Foundations , accessed April 1, 2019.