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FROM THE PROVINCIAL
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 NEW YORK - The past two weeks have been marked by sadness in our beloved Province. We lost our brother, Januarius Izzo on the 23rd, and then so shockingly this week, we lost John Scarangello on the 30th.
The passing of Jan was not as much of a surprise, but still deeply felt. Jan was someone who left a lasting impression on everyone that he met. It was brought home just how much he was appreciated and revered in the Byzantine world during his wake service at St. Leonard's where a member of the Byzantine clergy asked to share a few words about Archimandrate Januarius. It was a reminder of what a special and dedicated priest Jan was, not only within the Province, but reaching so far beyond as well. He will be missed.
It is still hard to put into words the shock of John's passing. I have known and been close to John since he was just a young man in our formation program. And, of course, over these last few years living here with John in New York, I relied on him for more than I can even imagine. His passing still somehow seems unreal - so sudden without a chance to say goodbye - and has left an empty place. John, you were taken from us far too soon. We love you and will miss you always.
It is such a poignant reminder of how important it is for all of us to appreciate one another each and every day. Our brotherhood, the bonds that tie us together, are such a dear, dear gift - one that we should not take for granted at any moment. As we grieve for Jan and for John, let us pull together more closely as a fraternity. We will carry this sadness together, and together is the way that we will heal.
The words of St. Francis from the Canticle of the Sun have never seemed more appropriate:
Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Bodily Death,
from whose embrace no living person can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing Your most holy will.
The second death can do no harm to them.
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Let them find rest from their labors, for their works accompany them." (Revelation 14.13)
May Jan and John rest in peace.
Fraternally,
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RIP: Fr. John Scarangello, OFM (59)
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NEW YORK - Our dear brother, FR. JOHN ROBERT SCARANGELLO, OFM (59), died suddenly Sat  urday, August 30, while on vacation in Onset, Massachusetts.
John was born on December 30, 1954 in Bronx, New York. He was received into the Order on August 15, 1976 and made his First Profession of Vows on August 6, 1977. John made his Solemn Profession of Vows on August 16, 1980 and was ordained to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ on November 14, 1981.
Much of John's ministry was centered in education. He was a member of the faculty at Serra High School in McKeesport, Pennsylvania from 1981-1983; and the faculty at Christopher Columbus High School in Boston, Massachusetts from 1983-1992. From 1992-1994, John was a member of the faculty at Marian High School in Framingham, Massachusetts; and served as Assistant Principal at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem, New York from 1994-1998. He served on the faculty at Mount St. Michael Academy, Bronx, New York from 1998-2000; and at Cathedral Girls' High School, New York, New York from 2000-2007.
John also served in parochial ministry as parochial vicar at St. Anthony of Padua Church, New York, New York from 1999-2000; and as pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Brooklyn, New York from 2007-2010.
Most recently John's ministry has been as a member of the Province Administration. Since 2010, John served as a member of the Provincial Definitorium, Guardian of the Provincial Curia and Secretary of the Provincial Minister. Since 2013, he has served as Secretary of the Province, Pro-Tem.
Fr. John will be remembered for so many things - his welcoming and fraternal spirit, his passion for the theater, his tremendous generosity, his love of and loyalty to his friends and to our Province, his dedication as a teacher and pastor, and the way that he filled every room he entered with joy and laughter.
Fr. John is predeceased by his beloved mother Lena (Marra). He is survived by his sister and brother-in-law Anna and Michael Mercanti; and two nieces Sarah and Katie, along with many counsins.
On Thursday, September 4, 2014, a wake was held at Our Lady of Peace Church, 522 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York.
On Friday, September 5, 2014, there will be a wake from 2-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at the Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, W. Houston and Sullivan Streets, New York, New York. There will be a special Prayer Service at 7 p.m.
The Solemn Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, September 6, 2014 at the Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Padua at 10:00 a.m. Burial will immediately follow at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York.
"Friars must remember to offer suffrages for every deceased friar of the Province, professed or novice. In particular, each priest shall offer the Eucharist twice. When the news of the death of a friar is received, a concelebrated Mass in his memory should be scheduled in the friaries of the province and the foundations. On the 30th day after and on the first anniversary of the death of a confrere, professed or novice, the Eucharist shall be celebrated for him in the house to which he was assigned at the time of death." (PS-8.1-3)
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Heavenly Father, we commend to your mercy Father John and all our brothers who have embraced Sister Death and we thank you for the gift of their lives. United in faith and prayer, through the intercession of our Immaculate Mother Mary, Our Holy Father Saint Francis and Our Holy Mother Saint Clare, keep us ever steadfast in your love as we strive for your vision of a world made new.
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RIP: Fr. Archimandrate Januarius Izzo, OFM (80)
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BOSTON - Our brother, FR. JANUARIUS IZZO, OFM. (80) died on Saturday, August 23, 2014 at Marian Manor Nursing Home in South Boston, Massachusetts.
Francis Edmond, the son of Emile and Marie (Fitzpatrick) Izzo, was born on April 23, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York. He was received into the First Order on August 15, 1953 and made his temporary profession on August 16, 1954, at Immaculate Conception Novitiate in Troy, New York.
Januarius professed Solemn Vows on August 16, 1957 at Mount Alvernia Seminary in Wappingers Falls,
New York. He was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on June 16, 1962 by the Most Rev. Lawrence Graziano, OFM.,D.D. at Mount Alvernia Seminary in Wappingers Falls, New York.
 Januarius' ministerial assignments were varied and many. He worked as the Provincial Vocation Director, Instructor, Guardian, Formator, Pastor and Canonist for many years.
On July 4, 1968, Januarius was elevated to Mitered Archimandrite of the Byzantine Rite by the Most Rev. Andrew Katkoff in the Basilica of St. Clement in Rome, Italy. His many years of service to the Byzantine Catholic community are to be commended and admired.
His body was waked on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 at St. Leonard Church, Hanover Street, Boston. The Solemn Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. Leonard Church on Thursday, August 28, 2014. His body was interred at the Friars' Cemetery, Andover, Massachusetts.
Friars must remember to offer suffrages for every deceased friar of the province, professed or novice. In particular, each priest shall offer the Eucharist twice. When news off the death of a friar is received, a concelebrated Mass in his memory should be scheduled in the friaries of the province and foundations. On the thirtieth day after and on the first anniversary of the death of a confrere, professed or novice, the Eucharist shall be celebrated for him in the house to which he was assigned at the time of his death.."(PS 8, 1-3)
Heavenly Father, we commend to your mercy Father Januarius and all our brothers who have embraced Sister Death and we thank you for the gift of their lives. United in faith and prayer, through the intercession of our Immaculate Mother Mary, Our Holy Father Saint Francis and Our Holy Mother Saint Clare, keep us ever steadfast in your love as we strive for your vision of a world made new.
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Br. Zach Wood renews temporary vows
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BOSTON - During the celebration of the Holy Mass on Wednesday, September 3, Br. Zach Wood, OFM renewed his temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Gathered at Immaculate Conception Friary in Boston, along with our three new postulants and other friars, Br. Zach professed his vows before Fr. Michael MacInnis, OFM, Postulant Director who was delegated by the Provincial Minister to receive the vows on his behalf. Fr. Robert Caprio, OFM, member of the Postulant team, was the homilist.
Br. Zach has entered into his second year of study at St. John Seminary in Brighton. He spent the summer doing coursework at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, and pastoral activity at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Derry.
Our other men in temporary profession - Br. Roberto Serrano, OFM, and Br. Walter Vijil, OFM - both renewed their temporary vows in July.
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Br. Joseph Powell to be ordained a deacon
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 | | Br. Joseph Powell, OFM |
WINSTED, CONNECTICUT - Provincial Minister Primo Piscitello, OFM, has announced that Br. Joseph Powell, OFM, will be ordained to the Transitional Diaconate on Saturday, September 13.
The Rite of Ordination will take place at St. Joseph Church in Winsted at the 4:00 p.m. Mass. Archbishop Emeritus of Hartford Daniel Cronin will preside and ordain Br. Joe.
Br. Joe is 27 years-old and originally from Granby, Massachusetts. He is one of 12 children. He made his solemn profession of vows in September 2013 and is currently stationed at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Derry, NH.
He is a 2013 graduate of the Pontifical University of St. Anthony (the Antonianum) in Rome. |
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Franciscan Lay Affiliates at Solid Ground reach out to children
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NEW YORK - Again this year the Franciscan Lay Affiliates and the Friends of Solid Ground Franciscan Ministry at St. Clare Friary in NYC in the name of the Province, are reaching out to assist children living in shelters with school supplies, school backpacks, paper, hand sanitizers, calculators, pins, pencils, name tags, emergency cards and a few other items that will make their first week back to school just a little bit easier.
This project was led by Brother Harold Williams, Jr., James P. Newson, Florence and Maurice Binns, Andre McGlashen and Charles F. Wiser, Jr.
New York City has an estimated 11,000 school age children who are homeless right now. This September they will be headed back to school without the supplies they need to succeed. In our small way we as Franciscans are" giving a child a chance" to succeed with dignity.
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Province Retreat set for October 19-23
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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.. |
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Pius X and the reform of the clergy
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By Monsignor James P. Moroney
The following reflection was offered by Monsignor James P. Moroney, Rector of St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. It was the closing reflection offered during the retreat for the Bishops of New England on August 21.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, Pope Pius X sat down and wrote a letter to all the priests of the world. The original is in his own hand and it was published as the Apostolic Exhortation Haerent Animo on August 4, 1908. For the rest of his pontificate, this saintly Pope was wont to give copies of it to Bishops, urging them to make it the pastoral plan for their dioceses.
He begins, in his own words by opening his heart to all priests: "it is a father's loving heart which beats anx  iously as he looks upon an ailing child."
The child is ailing, he suggests, because he no longer seeks after holiness. He doesn't pray much. He doesn't sit down, shut up and meditate much. And he rarely goes to confession.
Sound familiar? To be honest, if the priest you are thinking about is about my age or a little older, he is very probably subject to this disease, a disease more deadly than Ebola, for it eats something more than flesh...it eats the marrow of the very soul of the Priest.
But wait a minute Jim, my brother priest might well say at this point. Stop all this pious mumbo-jumbo:
My prayer is my work. I'm out there running three parishes, keeping the food pantry stocked, visiting people in three hospitals and going to a ton of meetings. And who do you think would do that if I sat fingering my beads all day? I'm a parish priest, and a parish priest gets it in gear and goes out there and gets it done, unlike Seminary rectors or USCCB bureaucrats!
And another thing, this obsession with sin is just not good for a resurrected people. If you liturgists would just bring back General Absolution, so many more people would come. Plus, we wouldn't have to sit in that that little box all day listening to the neuroses of... And as far as me going to confession...I don't have the time. And I'm too busy to commit mortal sin!
My dear brother, I might respond. Some things never change. A hundred years ago, when a parish priest was elected Pope, Joseph Sarto established three big priorities: fostering the teaching of the Catechism, promoting First Communion for children and getting the clergy to pray and go to confession.
Why? Because a lot of priests had stopped praying and going to confession.
"There are some who think," the saintly Pope wrote in his own hand, "and even declare openly, that the true measure of the merits of a priest is his dedication to the service of others; consequently, with an almost complete disregard for the cultivation of the virtues which lead to the personal sanctification of the priest, they assert that all his energies and fervor should be directed to the development and practice of what they call the active virtues. One can only be astonished by this gravely erroneous and pernicious teaching...
There is, indeed, only one thing that unites man to God, one thing that makes him pleasing to God and a not unworthy dispenser of his mercy; and that one thing is holiness of life and conduct. If this holiness, which is the true supereminent knowledge of Jesus Christ, is wanting in the priest, then everything is wanting. Without this, even the resources of profound learning, or exceptional competence in practical affairs, though they may bring some benefit to the Church or to individuals, are not infrequently the cause of deplorable damage to them.
Pope Pius X then goes on to discuss the Cure of Ars, Saint John Vianney, as the outstanding exemplar of Priestly life. Was Vianney the brightest in his class? Hardly. He flunked the Latin exam four times! Was he the finest writer of sermons. No. Most of his sermons were read from a collection of sermons he received in seminary. Was he the best administrator or organizer of new initiatives? Very little there.
But he was holy. He was known to be a man of prayer, unswerving charity and sacrifice. He knew he was little and God was big, that we are sinners in need of God's mercy. And that is what is really important in the life of the parish priest.
Pope John Paul II, in an ad limina visit with the Bishops of the Northwestern part of the United States perfectly expressed this messed up sense of priorities among parish priests when he said:
...Prayer for the needs of the Church and the individual faithful is so important that serious thought should be given to reorganizing priestly and parish life to ensure that priests have time to devote to this essential task, individually and in common. Liturgical and personal prayer, not the tasks of management, must define the rhythms of a priests life, even in the busiest of parishes.
Now when we believe that, we will have begun to experience the reform of the priesthood and the rebirth of the Church in our day which we all so desperately need.
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And then there's confession. "Some," Pope Pius write, "Some of those who find recollection of the heart a burden, or entirely neglect it, do not seek to disguise the impoverishment of soul which results from their attitude, but they try to excuse themselves on the pretext that they are completely occupied by the activity of their ministry, to the manifold benefit of others." Which is why he warns that we should observe the counsel of Saint Bernard, who wrote:
"As a searching investigator of the integrity of your own conduct, submit your life to a daily examination. Consider carefully what progress you have made or what ground you have lost . . . Strive to know yourself. . . Place all your faults before your eyes. Come face to face with yourself, as though you were another person, and then weep for your faults."
The Pope goes on:
It cannot be denied, and it is bitterly to be deplored, that not infrequently one finds priests who use the thunders of their eloquence to frighten others from sin, but seem to have no such fear for themselves and become hardened in their faults; a priest who exhorts and arouses others to wash away without delay the stains from their souls by due religious acts, is himself so sluggish in doing this that he delays even for months; he who knows how to pour the health-giving oil and wine into the wounds of others is himself content to lie wounded by the wayside, and lacks the prudence to call for the saving hand of a brother which is almost within his grasp. In the past and even today, in different places, what great evils have resulted from this, bringing dishonor to God and the Church, injuring the Christian flock and disgracing the priesthood!
Corruptio optimi pessima. "Sublime is the dignity of the priest, but great is his fall, if he is guilty of sin; let us rejoice for the high honor, but let us fear for them lest they fall; great is the joy that they have scaled the heights, but it is insignificant compared with the sorrow of their fall from on high."
Woe then to the priest who so far forgets himself that he abandons the practice of prayer, rejects the nourishment of spiritual reading and never turns his attention inwards upon himself to hear the accusing voice of conscience.
There's not a lot which people expect from their priests. But prayer and penance are at the top of the list. And if I abandon those, I become a hypocrite, the opposite of the good pastor of the Canterbury tales:
To lead folk into Heaven by means of gentleness
By good example was his business.
I think there never was a better priest.
He had no thirst for pomp or ceremony,
Nor spiced his conscience and morality,
But Christ's own law, and His apostles' twelve
He taught, but first he followed it himself.
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I began this retreat with a reflection on orientation, because facing Christ is the only true way to heaven. This last talk, like the closing doxology of the Roman Canon itself, intensifies that reflection.
For when we face Christ and abandon ourselves to him, we are caught up in the divine life, drawn into the mysteries of the Most Blessed Trinity and, as a consequence, utterly transformed.
Per ipsum, for he is the only way to the Heaven
Cum ipso, for we have been ordained to offer sacrifice and sacrament in union with him
In ipso, for a lifetime of priestly ministry so conforms us to the Lord, that we are able to reflect him to others, we in him, he in us, until the lines are not only indistinguishable but not even very important any more.
Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, est tibi Deo Patri Omnipotente, omnis honor et gloria, per saecula saeculorum. Amen.
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Interprovincial retreat opportunities
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There are two interprovincial retreat opportunities coming up in the months ahead.
The first retreat opportunity is the "Seasoned Friars Retreat: A Practical & Spiritual Approach Toward a Hopeful Future." It will take place November 3-7, 2014 at San Pedro Center in Winter Park, Florida. The presenters for this retreat are Fr Myles Sheehan, SJ, Provincial of the New England Province of Jesuits; and Br. Craig Wilking, OFM, a Franciscan Friar of Assumption Province, Franklin, WI.
The second will take place January 5-9, 2015 and is entitled "An Approach to Hope: The Gospels Through The Lens of Franciscan Scholarship". It will be directed by Sr Mary Beth Ingham, CSJ - a member of the Sisters of St Joseph. She has a Ph.D., Philosophy from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She is currently ministering as Professor of Philosophical Theology at the Franciscan School of Theology in Oceanside, CA. She is a renowned Franciscan scholar and lecturer whose focus is on the teachings of John Duns Scotus. This retreat will take place at
Holy Cross Retreat Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
You can download more information about each retreat below
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