Members of the Duquesne delegation celebrated the Pentecost liturgy with Fr. Ned Marchessault, C.S.Sp., at the Endulen mission.

1. mission matters
mission matters
Journey to Tanzania
Sheds Light on Spiritan Mission,
Possible African Partnerships
– By the Rev. James mccloskey, c.s.sp.,
At the end of spring vice pResident foR mission and identity –
semester, Vice President for
Mission and Identity Reverend James Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the
McCloskey, C.S.Sp., traveled to East highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Ngake Ngai,”
Africa with a delegation of Duquesne the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass
administrators and faculty to explore
of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.
possible partnerships between the
(Hemingway, 1936, p. 52).
University and the established Spiritan
ministries. The group included: So begins The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Ernest Hemingway’s tragic saga of
• Christopher Duncan, McAnulty expatriate life in East Africa. In the shadow of that same mountain, I, along
College & Graduate School of with nine other members of the Duquesne University community, traveled to
Liberal Arts Arusha, Tanzania, visiting health care facilities, schools, parishes and social
service agencies sponsored by the Spiritan Congregation there. What we were
• Dean Alan Miciak, Palumbo•Donahue “seeking at that altitude” was something more intangible and indefinable
School of Business than mere cultural exchange or even service. It was the meaning of Spiritan
• Dean David Seybert, Bayer School life in relationship to its history in Africa—and the meaning of that same
of Natural & Environmental Sciences Spiritan mission today at Duquesne.
Our visit, from May 18 to May 26, was hosted by the members of the
• Dean Olga Welch, School of
Spiritans in Tanzania. It was designed to acquaint us with projects such
Education
as the DREAM program, an AIDS clinic jointly sponsored by the Spiritans
• Dean Greg Frazer, Rangos School and the San Egidio Community of Italy, Tengeru Secondary School, Njiro
of Health Sciences Hill Seminary, the Okokola School for Handicapped Children, Mount Meru
• Dean Eileen Zungolo, School of Hospital, and Saint Augustine University, among other social ministries.
Nursing
Meetings with the leadership team of the Spiritans in Tanzania began and
ended the experience.
• Sister Rosemary Donley, Jacques On the visit to a class in the Secondary School for Boys in Moshi, students
Laval Endowed Chair in Justice shared their career aspirations with Deans Miciak, Duncan, Seybert and
for Vulnerable Populations Welch. It was clear that the career paths they sought were varied and centered
• James Swindal, chairperson, on a number of professions.
Philosophy Department “They all had high career
aspirations—to be scientists,
• Anne Marie Hansen, assistant lawyers, entrepreneurs. I told
professor, Rangos School
The journey, organized by Hansen, a lay
Spiritan, in cooperation with the Office
of Mission and Identity, also enabled the
group to actively learn about Spiritan life
and mission in the context of Africa.
Following is Fr. McCloskey’s reflection 2
on this experience.
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1. Sr. Rosemary Donley and Dean Eileen Zungolo meet with a staff member at the USA
River Health Clinic. 2. Deans Miciak and Seybert are surrounded by Maasai children
following Pentecost Mass at Endulen.
2 DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE Fall ‘10

2. mission matters
Members of the Duquesne delegation
celebrated the Pentecost liturgy with
Rev. Ned Marchessault, C.S.Sp., at
the Endulen mission. Pictured are
(standing left to right) Rev. James
McCloskey, C.S.Sp., Olga Welch,
Christopher Duncan, David Seybert,
Marchessault, Eileen Zungolo and
Sister Rosemary Donley. Kneeling
(from left to right): Anne Marie
Hansen, Alan Miciak.
them that the profession of teaching years ago on an abandoned former by Father Ned Marchessault, an
is critical to their achieving these sisal plantation in Arusha. American Spiritan now resident in
goals,” said Welch. “The Spiritans have built a chapel, Endulen for the past 20 years.
“I was very inspired by the faculty residence, three large lecture “I will never forget the power
Spiritan commitment to educating the halls, five dormitories and a large of the liturgy on Pentecost Sunday,
poor, demonstrating that people can meeting hall. It’s a lively place with offered in the Maasai language,”
improve the quality of their lives if a very robust farm—replete with added Donley. “This experience
given an opportunity to learn,” said animals and fruit trees—a soccer field is linked, at least in my mind, with
Miciak. “In many cases the students that doubles as grazing area for the the rescue work carried out by a
were learning without the benefit of cattle and beautiful grounds with an Spiritan bush pilot and his three
books, computers or any learning aids array of exotic plants and flowers colleagues. From their mission, they
whatsoever. It makes you wonder about the buildings. The seminary fly seriously ill or injured people to
what they could achieve with the now trains upwards of 125 seminary obtain medical care. This glimpse
proper support.” students, including Spiritans, as into the face of Tanzania brought the
Swindal recalled the wonderful well as Missionaries of Africa (White spiritual and corporal works of mercy
hospitality from the Spiritans at the Fathers), Passionists, Palotines and into focus and helped me envision
mission seminary, established 25 Assumptionists,” he said. the exciting partnership between
A highlight of our trip was the Duquesne University and the work of
celebration of the Pentecost Sunday the Spiritans in Africa.”
liturgy, a major feast of the Spiritan No program, presentation or
Congregation, at the mission of lecture on Spiritan values could ever
Endulen. Located on the lip of substitute for the rich experience of
the Ngorongoro Crater, a wildlife personal contact with the members of
preserve and conservation area near the Spiritan community in East Africa
the Serengeti Plain, the Endulen and their partners in mission. Their
parish ministers to the Maasai zeal for service to the poor—and
people, a nomadic tribe indigenous the quality of that service—was a
to Tanzania and Kenya. The Mass, powerful reminder of the treasure
celebrated in both Swahili and that we hold in our own Spiritan
3 Maasai, was a vibrant experience of legacy at Duquesne.
music, dance and drama, presided
3. The rector of the Njiro Seminary provides a tour
of the grounds to Sr. Rosemary Donley and Dr. Jim
Swindal.
www.duq.edu
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