Irish Spiritan Province. Quarterly Information Bulletin Nº 3 (July – September 2014)
Templeogue College students support Kenyan school
In 2013 a group of three Transition Year students of Templeogue College
(http://www.templeoguecollege.ie/) researched a number of overseas Spiritan Missions with a
view to allocating funds being raised by the school’s Past Pupils’ Union. The funds would go
to the mission that most resonated with their own experience as students of a Spiritan school.
The students - Thomas Burke, Michael Kelly and James O’Connor – chose the new mission
in Rotu in Kenya’s Pokot region.
Fr. Seán McGovern C.S.Sp., who first went on mission to Kenya in the mid-1960s and who
moved to Rotu in 2011, visited Templeogue College on 24th September 2014 while on
holidays. His meeting with the students proved to be enjoyable, educational and inspirational
and he was delighted to be handed a cheque to the value of €2,000 for use by Rotu school.
“Fr Seán has seen the fruits of his labour with both boys and girls receiving education and
gaining work. Rotu is living proof of the belief that ‘education changes poverty’.” - Thomas
Burke
“Fr Seán is a truly selfless and inspiring character. I am proud to have played some small
part in his incredible work.” - Michael Kelly
“Above all, I felt huge respect for Fr. Seán, not only for the phenomenal amount of work he
has done in Rotu, but for his extraordinary courage”. - James O’Connor
Picture shows Fr. McGovern with (from left to right) Michael Kelly, James O’Connor and
Thomas Burke.
John Laizer C.S.Sp. and Overseas Development Officer Ms Connie O’Halloran visited
Tanzania in September. While there they went to the prospective Marian University in
Bagamoyo – the city which hosted the Congregation’s 2012 General Chapter – the
Libermann Boys’ Secondary School in Goba and the farm the Spiritans run in Mlandizi.
Tanzania, a Province of the Congregation since 2008, has long had a Spiritan presence. The
Irish Spiritan connection to the Vicariate of Zanzibar dates back to the 1870s when Brother
John Peter Bowes from Bansha was appointed there.
Picture shows from left to right John Laizer C.S.Sp, Connie O’Halloran and Luke Mbefo
C.S.Sp.
1
Peter Hughes C.S.Sp. (pictured) died peacefully in Marian House, Kimmage on 16th July
2014 on what was the 53rd anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
Born in 1933 in Glasnevin, Peter did his secondary studies in Rockwell College, Co.
Tipperary, before entering the Spiritan novitiate in Kilshane.
Fr. Peter’s first appointment was to Nigeria where he served in a pastoral role from 1962 until
1967 in what became the Diocese of Enugu. Going to the US in 1968, he served briefly in a
pastoral role in Texas before moving to New York later the same year where he did
fundraising for two years.
In 1971 he began a period of more than a decade in the Diocese of Monze in Zambia. After
renewal studies in Marianella in Dublin, Fr. Peter returned to the US in 1983, to the Diocese
of Fargo, North Dakota where he served until 2012 when he transferred to Kimmage Manor.
Miscellaneous
A Mass on Sunday 20th July marked the closing of the 150th Anniversary celebrations at
Rockwell College. Now a co-educational secondary school, the Co. Tipperary campus once
hosted the senior seminary of the Congregation - this later moved to Kimmage Manor - a
catering school and an agricultural school.
Having successfully completed his programme of studies in Limerick’s Mary Immaculate
College, Michael Gomez C.S.Sp. has returned to The Gambia.
Ed Grimes C.S.Sp. has been re-appointed a director of the National Board for Safeguarding
Children in the Catholic Church, a role to which he was first appointed in 2011.
A total of 28 Spiritan associates and confrères came together for a one-day workshop on
‘Living Spiritan Spirituality’. The workshop led by Barney Kelly C.S.Sp. was held in
Kimmage Manor on 26th August 2014.
2