Maurice Shortall C.S.Sp. has been elected Community Leader of the 18-strong Irish Spiritan group in Brazil, with effect from May 2010.
The 46-year old is a native of Coon, Castlecomer. After attending Castlecomer Vocational School, Maurice did a two-year course in Rockwell Catering College in Co. Tipperary and joined the Spiritan (Holy Ghost ) Congregation in 1982.
Maurice went to The Gambia as part of his missionary training. On his return to Ireland, he studied theology and was ordained a missionary priest in Kimmage Manor, Dublin in 1991.
On completion of further studies in Rome, he was appointed to the Brazilian mission where Irish Spiritans have been part of an international team since 1963. The group of Irish priests works among the poor in parishes such as those on the peripheries of Rio de Janeiro or the shantytowns of São Paulo. Apart from attending to pastoral needs, Spiritans have set up educational and development works in the region including courses in computers and job-training for youth and English classes.
Fr Maurice has been part of a team living and working in the eastern zone of São Paulo city, in a parish with an approximate population of 70,000 inhabitants many of whom are impoverished migrants from all over Brazil.
While taking on the Community Leader role, Fr. Maurice remains one of three Irish priests leading the formation of the next generation of Spiritans in Brazil. 32 Brazilian Spiritans now minister in their home country.
Meanwhile, another Castlecomer priest, George Boran C.S.Sp., former National Youth Director for the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference and a published author (in English, Portuguese, German and Ukrainian ) on the evangelization of young people, currently co-ordinates Brazil’s national youth training centre in São Paulo.
