Surprising and inspiring news yesterday, when the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden announced that it would entrust the parish of Saints Peter and Paul in south-central Friesland, which includes the city of Heerenveen, to the Holy Ghost Fathers. Three priests from this religious congregation will take care of the pastoral needs of the faithful there, with the first, Father Charles Eba’a C.S.Sp, arriving to succeed Father Anton de Vries as parish priest. The latter is currently recovering from heart surgery and retiring on age and health grounds. Fr. Eba’a, 43, will be joined on short notice by 70-year-old Father Leo Gottenbos C.SS.Sp. A third Holy Ghost Father, possibly also of African decent, will arrive in 2016, although no one has been named yet.
The Holy Ghost Fathers, or in full the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, were founded in 1703 in Paris by then-seminarian Claude Poullart des Places, and barely survived the French Revolution. Today, the congregation is dedicated to spreading the Good News and working with the poor and ministering in areas and situations “where the Church has difficulty in finding ministers”. The north of the Netherlands certainly qualifies in that respect.
Fr. Charles Eba’a, pictured at right, originally comes from Cameroon and has worked in parishes in the Diocese of Rotterdam for the past ten years, most recently as parish priest in the parish federation of St. Mary Magdalen in the Southern part of the city of Rotterdam and adjacent towns. Fr. Leo Gottenbos returned in September from 40 years’ ministry in Brazil.
The initiative for their arrival was taken by the Holy Ghost fathers two years ago, when the province contact Bishop Gerard de Korte to see if an international community of three fathers could be established somewhere in the diocese. The parish in and around Heerenveen was selected because of the upcoming retirement of the parish priest, the focus on service and the planned function of the parish house as meeting place in the city. The community will the congregation’s fifth in the Netherlands.
The Holy Ghost Fathers will be the only religious community in the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden, although a second one is planned: the coming of the Cistercians of Sion Abbey to Schiermonnikoog, which I wrote about before. A third religious establishment is the shrine of Our Lady of the Garden Enclosed, maintained by hermit Father Hugo, in Warfhuizen.
In Caelo et in Terra 