Fr. William Cleary, C.S.Sp., is an Irish Spiritan with different mission experiences in Ireland, Kenya, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe. He wrote a history of the Catholic Church in The Gambia, Reaping a Rich Harvest, in preparation for the papal visit of 1992. As Director for Ethos in Irish Spiritan schools, he edited Spiritan Schools: Education for Transformation through Gospel Values (2015). He wrote Spiritan Life and Mission since Vatican II during his time as Spiritan Scholar in Residence, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh.
Spiritan Life and Mission Since Vatican II | Order Here
Spiritan Life and Mission Since Vatican IIThe Second Vatican Council (1962–65) called for the renewal of all religious institutes in the Catholic Church. Spiritan Life and Mission since Vatican II recounts this journey of renewal in three parts: the Spiritan world before Vatican II and the election of Archbishop Lefebvre as superior general in 1962; the “ad experimentum” period culminating with a new rule of life in 1986; and the implementation of this new rule as interpreted through inter-congregational discourse, particularly the general chapters of 1992, 1998, and 2004. The development of thinking on the church’s mission and the congregation’s rediscovery of the founding charisms of Claude Poullart des Places and Francis Libermann provide the parameters for this positive interpretation of the Spiritan journey of renewal. Its evolution in the third millennium into a multicultural, international missionary community of some three-thousand members from over sixty countries in service of the Missio Dei bears testimony to this.