Superior of 321-year-old Order with Dominant African Membership Cautions against “impoverished” Spirituality

“Sick or elderly confreres who have embarked on a new mission have told me how happy they are to be able to accompany the Congregation’s mission through prayer,” Fr. Mayama says about a section of the 2,714 Spiritans present in some 60 countries across the globe according to the 30 April 2024 statistics of the Congregation.

The Superior General’s experience of Spiritan apostolic communities, where members have embraced a prayerful lifestyle contrasts “other places” he visited where “we see an unacknowledged spiritual crisis developing.”

Superior General of the Spiritans, Fr. Alain Mayama (left) and the Provincial Superior of Kenya and South Sudan, Fr. Frederick Elima Wafula (Right). Credit: ACI Africa

In these places, he observed “a relationship with God that has become impoverished, erased, where we no longer have a sufficient relationship with God to be able to live from it.”

To underscore the danger of allowing the “unacknowledged spiritual crisis” to develop, Fr. Mayama, the first African Spiritan Superior General, cites Pope Francis, the Spiritan Rule of Life (SRL), and the two founders of the Holy Ghost Fathers, Claude François Poullart des Places and François Marie Paul Libermann.

Spiritans during the Chapter of the Province of Kenya and South Sudan at St. Magdalene Retreat House, Resurrection Garden, Archdiocese of Nairobi in November 2023. Credit: ACI Africa

Pope Francis has drawn the attention of members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL) to “the danger of neglecting the interior life and adapting to the style of the world,” the Superior General of the Spiritans since his election in October 2021 says in his Christmas 2024 message referring to the Holy Father’s address to women and men Religious during the 2024 World Day of Consecrated Life, on February 2. 

“The Holy Father is concerned about the inability of some consecrated people to slow down and make room for God’s action within them,” Fr. Mayama says, adding that the Pontiff is faulting “the growing tendency to get too caught up in our apostolic activity, at the risk of turning Christian and religious life into ‘a lot of things to do’ and neglecting the daily search for the Lord in prayer and meditation.”

The link between prayer and apostolic work is emphasized in the SRL, the Rome-based Superior General says and goes on to cite SRL #87 that states, “our prayer and our apostolic work are ultimately linked. They complement each other. Union with God in prayer leads us to be of service to others, and the apostolic work we do is, in its turn, a worship offered to God in the Spirit (Rom 1:9) and a deepening of our union with Him.”

Superior General of the Spiritans, Fr. Alain Mayama (left) and the Provincial Superior of Kenya and South Sudan, Fr. Frederick Elima Wafula. Credit: ACI Africa

The native of Congo-Brazzaville lauds the two founders of the Spiritans for demonstrating the link between prayer and pastoral activity.

Claude Poullart des Places and Libermann, Fr. Mayama says, “are our models of the link between union with God and pastoral activity. They didn’t become founders overnight, nor as a result of a well-developed, preconceived strategic plan, but rather thanks to a personal and persevering spiritual experience, a desire to be in the presence of the Lord, listening to Him and worshipping Him.

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. 

Spiritans during the Chapter of the Province of Kenya and South Sudan at St. Magdalene Retreat House, Resurrection Garden, Archdiocese of Nairobi in November 2023

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”.

(Story continues below)

On 8 March 2023, a delegation of Spiritans had an audience with Pope Francis to mark the 175th anniversary of the re-founding of their Congregation that is present in some 60 countries across five continents.

Through the years, the Congregation has had 25 Superiors General. Fr. Mayama is the first African native Superior General of the Congregation, whose membership has undergone a “significant demographic shift”.

Fr. Mayama, flanked by members his Council. From left to right: Fr. Marc Botzung (France), Fr. Jean-Marc Sierro (Switzerland), Fr. Philip Massawe (Tanzania), Fr. Jude Nnorom (Nigeria), Fr. Alain Mayama (Congo Brazzaville), Fr. Jeff Duaime (USA), Fr. Albert Ndongo Assamba (Cameroon), Fr. Kieran Alaribe (secretary general, Nigeria), and Fr. Tony Neves (Portugal). Credit: Fr. Dominic Gathurithu, CSSp.

Sharing the latest statistics of the Spiritans in his Pentecost 2024 message, Fr. Mayama said that for every 10 Spiritans, seven “come from 25 circumscriptions in Africa”, comprising 1,906 members (70.23%).

“Perhaps more striking is the fact that of the 532 professed scholastics, 480 come from Africa (90.23%); 1 from Europe (0.19%), 10 from the Indian Ocean (1.88%); 1 from North America (0.38%); 9 from South America (1.69%); 8 from the Caribbean (1.50%); 22 from Asia (4.14%)” and none from Oceania, he said in his Pentecost 2024 message. 

In his Christmas 2024 message, the Superior General of the Spiritans calls upon his confreres to embrace the “process of spiritual renewal” that is part of the Congregation’s “animation plan” that is in its second phase that was launched on October 2, the anniversary of Claude Poullart des Places.

Superior General of the Spiritans, Fr. Alain Mayama (left) and the Provincial Superior of Kenya and South Sudan, Fr. Frederick Elima Wafula (Right). Credit: ACI Africa

The spiritual renewal, Fr. Mayama says, entails coming “to the truth within ourselves, as regards our prayer: personal and community prayer, the reading of the Word of God and the Eucharist celebrated in connection with our apostolic life.”

It also entails rediscovering “the absolute necessity of prayer, drawing inspiration from the examples and writings of our two founders.”

“Each community, despite the daily demands of its missions, will need to establish a schedule for daily prayer according to what is possible in its particular situation,” Fr. Mayama says referring to the Spiritans’ animation plan that is in its second phase.

“May the celebration of the Mystery of the Incarnation, where we contemplate the Word of Life, the Infant Jesus, being reborn in the life of each one of us, help us to give more time to God in prayer, in the midst of our pastoral occupations,” he implores in his Christmas 2024 message in which he recognizes Pope Francis’ invitation to participate in the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year as “Pilgrims of Hope”.

He further implores, “May the Virgin Mary, who gave the world the Saviour, help us to welcome with joy and enthusiasm the invitation to personal and community spiritual renewal.”