July 11, 2014

In This Issue

Fr. Roderick Crispo, OFM (pictured left), along with Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap., and others at the recent Redemptoris Mater gala held June 22 in Norwood, MA.

 ROME - General Minister Michael A. Perry, OFM, who also serves as Great Chancellor of the Antonianum, has nominated Sister Mary Melone, a Franciscan nun, to serve as rector of the Pontifical University Antonianum. She will be the first woman to head a pontifical university. The Congregation for Catholic Education recently issued a decree affirming that nomination and appointing her as Rector.

 

The achievement is the latest of many for Melone, who was the first woman to get a permanent position as a professor at the university, and the first woman to be appointed a dean. 

 

The three-year appointment was announced on the Friars' website. The statement said that the General Minister, "expresses his warmest congratulations to Sr. Mary, sharing with conviction the confidence expressed by this choice by the Congregation itself, in the certainty that the daring novelty of this appointment will open new horizons for the life and academic activities of the Franciscan Institute of study and research."

 

Melone told L'Osservatore Romano in a 2011 interview that she believes that there is a new space for women in the Church. "I believe this depends a great deal on us women too. It is us who should get the ball rolling. Women cannot measure how much space they have in the Church in comparison to men: we have a space of our own, which is neither smaller nor greater than the space men occupy. It is our space. Thinking that we have to achieve what men have, will not get us anywhere," she said, according to a translation by Vatican Insider.

 

Still, Melone believes that change will continue to happen. She added, "A great deal more can be done but there is change, you can see it, feel it. I think that (my case aside) the election of a woman in a pontifical university is also proof of this. The body who elected me was made up entirely of men!"

General Minister Michael A. Perry, OFM

 

Nairobi, Kenya

June 24, 2014

 

My dear Brother Minister Provincial Primo, 

my dear brothers of the Provincial Definitorium, 

my dear brothers of the Province of the Immaculate Conception, 

 

May the Lord give you his peace!

 

I take this occasion to write to you from Kenya where I am visiting one of the fastest growing entities of the Order, the Province of Nairobi with its presence in 9 countries!  Even here in Africa, the question of restructuring has surfaced as these young entities face tremendous growth in the number of men applying and coming to Franciscan religious life.  While these growing provinces of the Order are engaged in discussions about how to manage the increasing number of young vocations, and the need to create new structures, new provinces, andnew custodies, they also and more importantly are talking about how to create a spirit of continual renewal of their Franciscan religious vocation in the midst of numerical increase. The quality of Franciscan life is at the heart of all processes of restructuring. 

 

As you gather in special chapter to discuss the issue of how to keep alive and strong our Franciscan presence and mission in the U.S., please know that you are not alone.  The other provinces in the U.S. have met to discuss and explore possible new ways of thinking about how to be Franciscan, and to ensure that the charism and our common life as brothers who profess the same rule are placed at the center of all discussions.  Some of you might also be wondering whether the Minister General and his Definitorium in Rome have plans for how the Franciscans in the US are to proceed, how they should restructure themselves and what Franciscan life should look like in the future.  I regret to inform you that we do not have a 'master plan' for the provinces in the US.  We are convinced that there is need for you, the brothers of all of the provinces of the US to take a deep and serious look at current realities and also future possibilities.  We are convinced that each and every province that enters into the process of review of current structures, and witness to fraternity and mission, will lead to a renewal of life for us Friars Minor.  We are less concerned with the outcome than with the energy and commitment of the friars to the process that, in and of itself, can serve to purify and deepen an awareness of and commitment to the common life as brothers of the Gospel, disciples of the Risen Lord, and prophets in a world that needs to be challenged and invited to welcome the message of the Gospel of Jesus.

 

I think that all of you know there is need for the provinces in the US to examine the actual situation of diminishment and aging that is occurring in all of the provinces.  You also will recognize the need to find ways to renew our Franciscan commitment, not only to our apostolic activities but also to the quality of our fraternal life.  The central question you are facing these days of meetings is how your province and the other provinces in the US together might actively and intentionally pursue a new dialogue, one that necessarily will involve a change in thinking, moving from a province-centered to an interprovincial and collaborative-centered manner for approaching our Franciscan life and mission in the times in which we find ourselves, times of rapid and unpredictable change and transformation.  We have arrived at a point in the history of the world, the Church and the Order where collaboration and restructuring are no longer simply nice wishes that can be invoked from time to time.  Rather, the entire movement of our Church and world is in the direction of collaboration at the deepest levels, leading to new ways of carrying forward the mission entrusted to us by God and the Church.  In some cases, the process of collaboration can also lead to the amalgamation of provinces and entities of the Order in order to more effectively give witness to our Gospel life.  I do not want to anticipate outcomes since this is the very purpose of the entire project of coming to the table to discuss new ways of living our Franciscan vows, our fraternity-in-mission in the context of the US.

 

Many diverse forms of collaboration and restructuring are taking place in the Order.  In Spain, 6 of the 8 current existing provinces and a Spanish foundation in Peru will form one province in January 2015.  The other two provinces opted not to join the process at this time but rather to remain independent.  Germany's four provinces made the decision, after some 4 years of research and study, to became 1 province. They friars of Germany continue to make great efforts to ensure a full and proper integration of the brothers into the one unified province.  Along the way, great care was given to help the brothers get to know those of the other provinces and to insure that all had a place 'at the table' in the creation of the new province or entity. In the case of northern Italy, 6 provinces will join to become 1 new province in early January 2015.  Among these provinces are several that, numerically, could have remained independent but chose, rather, to participate in all of the discussions leading to the actual decision that the provinces would merge.  They were present at the table from the beginning and, after much discernment, chose to move forward with restructuring.

 

As you might recognize, there are different approaches to the question of restructuring and reorganizing of the provinces.  In the case of each, the goal is to insure that each and every brother is given the opportunity to deepen his awareness of and commitment to the values of our Franciscan Rule and Constitutions.  Care also is taken to recognize and celebrate the unique histories of each of these entities, and to integrate qualities of each of these provinces in the new entities.   In this way nothing is forgotten, nothing is lost.

 

My dear brothers, you are being called to make a decision as to whether or not to engage in a process of dialogue that could, and most likely will, lead to the restructuring of the Franciscan provinces in the US.  You are being invited to decide to have an active and determinative voice in these discussions.  According to the timeline, the decision you make now means that you open yourselves and the future of the province to something new, to a 'holy newness'.  It is not clear as of now where all of these discussions might lead, what forms might best serve the living out of our evangelical life in fraternity and mission. What I and the General Definitorium are seeking to do is to encourage and support efforts to engage in a serious dialogue among the provinces of the US, and to ensure that the future of our Franciscan way of life might remain strong.

 

I invite each of you, my brothers, to open wide your hearts and listen to the Spirit of God speaking to you.  I urge you to engage in a serious process of discernment and to arrive at a decision that reflects the full values of our life as Friars Minor.  You are being invited to 'come to the table' where the future of our Franciscan way of life as we know it in the U.S. will be discussed.  I invite you as individual brothers to discern and to decide what will be in the best interest of the Order, and to our evangelical witness in the US in the future.  No matter what decision you reach thse days regarding your participation in ongoing discussions about the future of Franciscan religious Life in the US, I urge you to develop ways to ensure that each friar of your province is engaged in a process of ongoing formation that will open your hearts to the mysterious working of the Holy Spirit, who is alive and active in our local and provincial fraternities, and through our communion with the local church and with the Order.

 

May the Lord guide your discussions and may you place his Holy and Sacred will at the center of your deliberations.

 

Sincerely yours,

Bro. Michael A. Perry, OFM

Minister General and Servant

By Will Grant | BBC Mundo

 

JUTICALPA, HONDURAS - Juticalpa is an unlikely place for a football stadium. A dusty cattle-ranching town in the rural state of Olancho, it seems hard to believe there is an urgent need for a 20,000-capacity sporting arena in this part of Honduras.

 

Yet amid the thick vegetation and rolling grasslands, a team of mud-caked workers is putting the finishing touches to the Estadio Juan Ramon Breve Vargas, the biggest stadium of its kind outside the capital, Tegucigalpa.

 

Furthermore, the brains behind the project is neither an architect nor a civil engineer but a chain-smoking Franciscan priest from Malta, Father Alberto Gauci - whom everyone here simply calls Padre Alberto. 

 

 "Honduras has a very, very big problem with drugs," he explains as we sit on the stadium's concrete bleachers. "I've been in meetings for the past 30 years, talking and discussing the problem of drugs, yet nobody does anything about it," he says.

 

"We know there is a problem. So the problem has to go hand in hand with trying to find a solution."

 

His solution is football. A keen player in his youth, Padre Alberto remains an avid fan, especially of his adopted country's national side.

 

"You should have been here when Honduras classified for the World Cup!" he remembers, pulling hard on one of his cheap menthol cigarettes.

 

"We were out all night on the streets of Juticalpa. These people don't have very much to be proud of but I could see them smiling and feeling proud."

 

 

He wants to harness that positivity around the tournament in Brazil to try to encourage young people away from drugs, street gangs and violence in the country with the highest murder rate in the world. "The stadium will be a place where the whole family can come together for any kind of spectacle - whether it's religion, sports or culture - sit down, have a roof over their heads and enjoy themselves," he says. "At least, that's my dream."

At the local high school, a group of kids playing football on a potholed pitch between rusted goalposts agree that Juticalpa can be a dull place for young people.

 

"It's easy to fall into cocaine and marijuana here", says 15-year-old Sebe. "Alcohol, too. I've seen a lot of people start using drugs."

 

Sebe thinks the stadium will be great because it may be used for concerts.

 

"I have friends who say 'Hey, we want to come to your town'," echoes his classmate Aile. "We have to tell them 'there's hardly anything here to do'. But it'll be easier once the stadium is built," he hopes.

Even in its unfinished state, the stadium is impressive. The roofing system was designed and constructed by local builders. The floodlights were imported from the United States and the turf is due to be laid by students at the local agricultural college. The result is a facility comparable with any of the leading teams in Central America. Moreover, it was delivered on a budget of just $2 million, only a quarter of which came from the local government.

 

The rest was raised through "$5 here, $20 there", as Fr Alberto puts it. Honduran expats in the United States pitched in too, raising tens of thousands of dollars through events such as fun runs and barbeques.

 

But Padre Alberto is often more touched by the smaller donations like a bag of cement or a day's free labour from people who have little to offer.

Invariably dressed in the singlet, shorts and sandals of a layman rather than the dog collar and formal robes of a man of the cloth, Padre Alberto's simple lifestyle is in keeping with his ethos of working in rural Honduras.

 

"Latin America is a very, very particular church", he says. As he sees it, the Catholic Church - particularly under Pope Francis - must try to work more closely with the local community.

 

 

In keeping with that sentiment, he has already overseen some impressive infrastructural projects during his 40 years in the town. "First we started with the elderly. We used to gather the elderly people who die on the street during the night because of the cold and we built them a home," he recalls. "Then we built an orphanage for the street kids."

 

The list goes on: a nutritional centre, a kindergarten, a bakery, a healthcare centre for local AIDS patients and even a prison to tackle chronic overcrowding in the penal system.

 

As for the stadium, the first beneficiaries will be the local football club, Juticalpa FC.

Newly promoted to the First Division, after the World Cup they will take their place in the top tier of Honduran football and now have a new home to match their ambitions.

 

Marco Mejia is their leading striker. At almost 40 years old, the veteran forward shares Padre Alberto's vision for the stadium, particularly as someone who battled with addiction himself.

 

"We accept that we're a completely underdeveloped country", he says with a slight grimace.

 

"Obviously we're trapped under a pile of problems from street crime to drug gangs to the killings of women and children.

 

"But the stadium is a window which Honduras is opening to the rest of the world. So people might start to see that Juticalpa isn't just cattle rearing and dairy farming.

 

"It is also football!"

WAPPINGERS FALLS, NY - The annual Province Retreat has been scheduled to take place October 19-23 at Mount Alvernia Retreat Center. The retreat will be a joint endeavor with the Capuchin Friars of St. Mary Province, also based in New York.

The theme of this year's retreat will be "Pope Francis and the New Evangelization: Implications for How We Evangelize as Franciscans." The retreat will be directed by Fr. Bill Cieslak, OFM Cap. 

Fr. Bill lived with the friars of the St. Barbara Province for 25 years while teaching Sacramental Theology, Sacred Liturgy and courses in The Legacy of the Franciscan Theological Tradition and Intellectual Tradition at the Franciscan School of Theology at Berkeley, California. He is currently the Director of Preaching and Evangelization for the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph and lives in Chicago.

The retreat will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 19 and will conclude following lunch on Thursday, October 23. Friars interested in attending must register by contacting Fr. Roch Ciandella at (845) 297-5706 Ext. 112 by October 13. 

Friars attending this retreat who are engaged in parochial and other external ministries and who are allowed a stipend for their annual retreat are kindly asked to donate that stipend to Mount Alvernia to help with the expenses related to the retreat..

CO-DIRECTORS OF COMMUNICATIONS: Thomas Washburn, OFM | Alvin Te, OFM