THE PROVINCIAL of the Spiritan (Holy Ghost) congregation in Ireland Fr Brian Starken has congratulated Dubliner Fr John Fogarty, head of the new province of the Spiritans in the US.
A native of Finglas, Fr Fogarty is based at the Catholic University in Duquesne in Pittsburgh and had worked as a missionary in Ghana. He was Rome-based assistant general from 1998 to 2004.
“In this year, the 150th anniversary of the arrival in Ireland of the first Holy Ghost Fathers [from France],” Fr Starken said, “we wish to acknowledge the contribution made by Fr Fogarty and the many other Spiritans who left Ireland as young missionaries and who have now taken on substantial additional responsibilities in their respective missions.”
There are seven Spiritan schools and colleges in Dublin and one in Tipperary. The congregation also works with refugees and immigrants, runs a hospital chaplaincy and administers four parishes in Dublin. Irish Spiritan missionaries continue to serve abroad, with 30 in the US and others in Brazil, Kenya, Angola, Gambia and Pakistan.
