Spiritans’ New Website Spreads a Message of Faith

The Spiritan congregation has launched a new website which will help them to spread their message in three different languages.

The Rev. James McCloskey, C.S.Sp., vice president of mission and identity, asked the Web team in the Office of Public Affairs to assist the Spiritans in developing a new website, which was launched in early June at http://www.spiritanroma.org.

In 150 pages and posts, the website captures an extensive history of the Spiritans, the writings of their founders, the charism and accounts of missionary activities. Nearly all the content is presented in Portuguese, French and English; the writings of Spiritan co-founder Francis Libermann are taken from the original French.

Duquesne also created a new, private online community in which the 3,000 fathers, brothers and Spiritan associates can post internal documents, find contact information and share news. Documents will come from the Spiritan Generalate and the General Chapters and relate to meetings organized by the General Council. Publications such as Spiritan Newsflash, Spiritan Life and Anima Una will be made available to the public.

“We hope that it will be a useful tool for communication between us and that it will become an instrument that will allow us to better live our lives belonging to the congregation,” said the Rev. Roland Rivard, C.S.Sp., the Spiritan’s assistente generale in Rome.

Rivard explained that many websites have also been set up by Spiritan circumscriptions in 60 countries around the world. He hopes to share with the public the nature of the Spiritan charism as incarnated in different cultures.

The public affairs staff also worked on the website for the Spiritans of the U.S. Provincial at http://www.spiritans.org, reorganizing and editing content for better usability. That project was coordinated with the Rev. Huy Dinh, C.S.Sp., of Texas and the Rev. John Fogarty, C.S.Sp., of the U.S. Provincial, Bethel Park.