In 1889 the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle was set up to become an integral part of the work of the Pontifical Mission Societies. Its specific goal was to assist in the education of the ever-growing numbers of seminarians in the global south. This was and still is achieved principally by the provision of bursaries and of funding for the building of seminaries.

In 2012 POSPA set up the Sharing the Word Project to improve access to modern information technology and library resources in these seminaries, to train staff and find innovative and cooperative solutions for their chronic lack of funding exacerbated by dwindling help from traditional sources. Operated with the help of professional volunteers the project’s management was entrusted to Catholic Mission in Australia. Since then this Project has automated nearly twenty seminary libraries in West Africa (Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania), Asia (Myanmar) and in the Pacific (Papua New Guinea and Fiji). It also helps with the cataloguing of seminary libraries, shipping of books and with giving professional advice on library management suited to their circumstances.

Sharing the Word ELibrary

In 2014 a beginning was also made with providing an online Catholic E-Library for the specific needs of seminarians and their teaching personnel in order to supplement their inadequate library resources. By now this ELibrary already provides access to the full text of nearly 14.000 carefully selected books, articles, Church documents and much else.

The compilation of this unique elibrary was undertaken by Catholic Mission’s 'Sharing the Word Project' to boost access to open source theological library resources freely available through the Internet, especially for Catholics in countries which lack access to adequate theological libraries. It is specifically intended to assist seminarians, theology students and clergy, pastoral workers and many others lacking access to good libraries , with a single access point to the spiritual and intellectual riches of the Christian heritage. For further information contact us at

[email protected]