Dear Father,
I would like to invite you to participate in an apostolate designed to support priests through
prayer. It is entirely voluntary, completely anonymous, and will require almost nothing from you.
It will certainly, however, be of great spiritual benefit to your life and ministry.
This apostolate is known as Spiritual Motherhood of Priests. The mission statement of this
apostolate is the following:
We are an apostolate of Catholic women, who, inspired by love for the Church and in
response to her invitation for Eucharistic Adoration for the Sanctification of Priests and
Spiritual Maternity (Congregatio pro Clericis, Dec. 8, 2007), make a total self-offering of
our lives for the sanctification of priests. We unite ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the Mother of the Eternal High Priest and His helper in the work of redemption, by
anonymously spiritually adopting a priest-son. Formed in an authentic feminine
spirituality we intercede for our priest-sons and for all priests in order to help them with
their self-offering, prayer, and penance. We emphasize Eucharistic Adoration as a
preeminent way to unite priests to the Priestly Heart of Jesus.
The ministry has been founded by Mrs. Maria Pirrone of Holy Redeemer Parish and Mrs. Maria
Nicastro of St Maurice Parish, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Both have long been involved in
ministries of intercession for priests. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast SJ gave the initial
permission and blessing for this apostolate, and when I was a priest in Ottawa, he had asked me
to oversee it. The apostolate has now the blessing from the new Archbishop of Ottawa–
Cornwall, the Most Reverend Marcel Damphousse. Fr. Roger Vandenakker, General Superior of
the Companions of the Cross; Fr. Pierre Champoux, Fr. Hezuk Shroff and Fr. Matthew Chojna,
Pastors of local parishes, are serving as Co-Chaplains of the Apostolate.
The women participate in a two day formation led by various priests and myself. It was officially
inaugurated on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (which was also the World Day of
Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests), July 1st , 2011, with Mass at St Maurice Parish. There
are at the present 206 spiritual mothers and this number grows with each yearly formation.
All that is required of you is a short letter written to the woman who will be spiritually adopting
your most heartfelt needs and personal intentions. As this will be the only correspondence you
will have – it would be important to mention more general and life-long intentions rather than
those that are more time-specific. Proper discretion should be used in describing intentions of a
more sensitive nature. Please remove any identifying information and do not sign the letter as
the apostolate is entirely anonymous.
If you would like to participate, please send your letter to the Apostolate.
You may either send it in a sealed envelope addressed to “My Spiritual Mother” and then
mailed in another envelope enclosed to:
Spiritual Motherhood of Priests
c/o Maria Pirrone/Maria Nicastro
107 Passageway Private
Kanata, ON Canada
K2M 2B5
Or……you can send letter by email to ![]()
info@spiritualmotherhoodofpriests.caPlease note all personal identifying information (i.e. email address, etc.) will be removed and the letter will
directly be put into a sealed envelope. The electronic copy of the letter will be immediately deleted.
The letter will then be given to a spiritual mother.
If you wish to browse their website, it is www.spiritualmotherhoodofpriests.ca
May the Lord bless you in your priestly life and ministry!
Bishop Scott McCaig, CC
Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada
Episcopal Adviser to Spiritual Motherhood of Priests Apostolate
June 7, 2024
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests
