Leaders of 322-Year-Old Congregation with African Majority Deliberate on “dramatic decline in vocations to brotherhood”

“The 2025 EGC revisited the pressing concern raised at Bagamoyo II: the dramatic decline in vocations to brotherhood,” the report ACI Africa obtained indicates, adding that during the June 30 afternoon session, Bro. Mariano Espinoza, a Spiritan coordinating the Justice and Peace department, “presented a pivotal reflection on the critical decline of vocation to brotherhood in the Congregation”, which included the appeals that the delegates at Bagamoyo II made.  

Bro. Mariano Espinoza, CSSp.  Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

The report notes that since 2021, the Spiritan General Council (GC) has commissioned 292 mission appointment, of whom only three were Spiritan Brothers. This situation has sparked justifiable “fears that this vital expression of Spiritan life may vanish without decisive action,” the July 1 report indicates. 

As a follow up to the Bagamoyo II deliberations, Spiritan Brothers in Anglophone West Africa (UCAWA) convened an inaugural General Assembly, which was realized in 2023 in the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja.

Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

Organized under the theme, “A Rescue Mission Agenda,” the convention brought together 10 Spiritan Brothers from Nigeria and Ghana, who “reflected on promoting vocations, enhancing formation, and improving visibility,” the July 1 report indicates. 

Participants in the 2023 Abuja General Assembly of Spiritan Brothers in West Africa “called for Brothers to join vocation and formation teams, use social media to showcase pastoral and professional contributions, and celebrate religious professions and anniversaries publicly.”

Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

The 10 Spiritan Brothers, who deliberated on “strategic topics” such as the possibility of having in place a formation curriculum, Spiritan Priest-Brother relations, and the welfare of Spiritan Brothers “proposed biannual regional meetings, local gatherings, and a future global Brothers’ conference,” according to the July 1 report that ACI Africa obtained.

The Brothers reportedly “emphasized the need for an action plan involving leadership, brothers, priests, laity, and religious, underscoring that the brother’s vocation reflects deeper questions about consecrated life within a clericalizing congregation.”

Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

To adequately address the challenge of declining numbers of Spiritan Brothers, “a paradigm shift is needed, led by religious priests concerned about this diminishing vocation,” the report indicates. 

Some specific proposals the report highlights include “a communication platform for brothers across circumscriptions, greater vocational animation, and consistent formation paths aligned with the Spiritan Guide for Formation.”

“As the Congregation assembles here in Chevilly, to review the decisions of Bagamoyo II, let us remember that the vocation of brother remains a huge challenge in the Congregation,” the July 1 report from the EGC reads in part.

Spiritan Brothers look forward to “the reflections and proposals” of the two-week EGC set to conclude on Saturday, July 5 for some “concrete steps to bring new dimensions and hope” to revive the Brotherhood vocation in the Congregation. 

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Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

“Together let us ‘do something new’ to make the vocation of brothers flourish once more,” the July 1 report indicates, referring to the theme of the October 2021 General Chapter of the Spiritans (Bagamoyo II).

Ahead of the EGC, the Superior General of the Spiritans acknowledged the significance of France as the venue of the meeting that has brought together dozens of Spiritans from across the globe. 

Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

Referring to Claude François Poullart des Places and François Marie Paul Libermann, the two founders of the Spiritans, Fr. Alain Mayama described France as a “place of our origins, the source of our charism and the spirituality of our founders.”

Fr. Alain Mayama.  Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

In his two-page Pentecost 2025 message addressed to the over 2,700 Spiritans present in some 60 countries spread across all continents and their Lay Associates, Fr. Mayama, the first African Spiritan Superior General, said that the choice of France aligns with the “Animation Plan on Spiritan Spirituality”, which is part of the Congregation’s “animation plan” that was launched on 2 October 2024, the anniversary of Claude Poullart des Places.

Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

France as the venue of the gathering of Spiritan leaders “also offers delegates from all corners of the Spiritan world the opportunity to visit places of significance in the history of the Congregation,” he further said. 

Credit: Spiritan Generalate/Rome/Fr. Philip Ng'oja, CSSp.

Poullart des Places, a native of France who gave up the practice of law to study for the Priesthood founded a community for youthful men with the wish to become Priests in 1703. He dedicated the community to the Holy Spirit, calling it the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. 

Some 150 years later, Libermann, a converted Jew, established another religious family also in France, bearing the name, the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thus the official name, the “Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”.

In a June 24 report at the start of the Spiritan EGC, the Superior General is quoted as saying that there are 2,946 members across 62 countries, thus a rise from 30 April 2024 statistics when there were 2,714 Spiritans, including 532 Spiritans, who were continuing with their initial formation.

For every 10 Spiritans, seven “come from 25 circumscriptions in Africa”, comprising 1,906 members (70.23%), Fr. Mayama said in his Pentecost 2024 message, adding that for every 10 Spiritans in initial formation program, nine are from Africa.

The need to foster collaboration among Spiritans across various regions of the globe and structures (circumscriptions) has also been a topic of discussion at the June 22 – July 5 EGC.

According to a Thursday, July 3 report ACI Africa obtained, participants in the EGC recognize that the “Congregation has faced significant structural challenges due to increasing membership and circumscriptions in the Global South, alongside declining numbers in the Global North.”

“In response, past chapters – beginning with Itaici (1992) and refined through Torre d’Aguilha (2004), Bagamoyo I (2012), and Bagamoyo II (2021) – initiated the formation of Unions of circumscriptions as organizational tools for collaboration, solidarity, and shared mission,” the report states, referring to the deliberations of Wednesday, July 2 sessions that had EGC participants reaffirm “financial solidarity as an essential pillar of the Congregation’s economic model, particularly as it advances self financing and sustainability.”

Earlier, at the start of the EGC, the Spiritan Superior General identified “improving communication and organizational structures” as one of the “pressing” priorities of the 322-year-old Congregation alongside “financial fragility, administrative weaknesses, and gaps in adherence to procedures.”

Fr. Mayama said, “It is to be hoped that the exchanges and reflections we will have during this Enlarged General Council will help us to work for the common good and vitality of our Congregation, in the spirit of the Bagamoyo II Chapter. This path requires patience and cooperation from all, but we are well on our way to successfully meeting this challenge”.

ACI Africa’s Editor-in-Chief, Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla, is a Spiritan.