Friars Jesus do Amaral and Ricardo Elvis da Cruz made the special request of their Custos that the Minister Provincial be invited to receive their Solemn Vows on the 2nd of August, because I had accompanied each step of their formation journey from their postulancy in Rio de Janeiro, through their novitiate in Caçapava, through the present moment of their post-novitiate in Brasília. After these two classmates finished their novitiate, the Rio Custody of the Immaculate Conception decided they should participate in the collaborative initial formation program at the Brasília Province’s post-novitiate formation house. It was heartening to see the large number of young friars from the formation program in Brasília who traveled in vans overnight – a distance of over one thousand kilometers – to offer fraternal support to Frei Jesus and Frei Ricardo. The aspirants and postulants from Rio’s formation house in Petrópolis also came. The presence of a whole cohort of enthusiastic young friars, who also provided the music for the liturgy, was a great sign of hope for the future of the Custody and the whole Order in Brazil.
Paraíba do Sul This is a small city, where the friars have one large parish that includes 11 communities of parishioners, each with its own church, at which the friars offer Masses. There are many farms in the area. During my canonical visitation here, the 3rd to 5th of August, I was taken to visit a typical small farm, where a parishioner, the 19-year old farmer Elias, positively delighted to welcome us to his barnyard, which resembled Noah’s Ark. In one and the same farm plot, cows mingled with donkeys and horses, while goats climbed haystacks, piglets muddied themselves, and the hens, roosters and geese managed to stay out of trouble with each other. Elias felt that the Minister Provincial’s blessing of the whole “Noah’s Ark” would help it resemble Isaiah’s “peaceable kingdom.” Later that evening, Elias, in gratitude, brought a gift of appreciation to the friary: a round of cheese that he had just made from the milk of his cows.
Valença The friars have no friaries or ministry sites in the city of Valença, but the diocesan see holds a unique and dear place in Franciscan hearts. Here, +Frei Elias James Manning, OFM Conv. served as the 6th Bishop of the Diocese, for 24 graced years. When he assumed his episcopal office, “Dom Elias” chose, as a poor friar, to live in a small apartment behind in the seminary building behind the official Bishop’s Palace. His humble style left such an impression on the people that a steady stream now come to pray at his tomb in the crypt of Valença’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Glory. His successor Bishop Nelson Ferreira invited the Minister Provincial to participate in special ceremonies on the 5th of August for the city’s re-naming of the street behind the Cathedral, now called “Rua Dom Elias James Manning.” The prefecture of the city of Valença also took the unique step of naming its Secretariat of Education’s Administration Building after Dom Elias. At a special dinner hosted by Dom Nelson, the friars were treated to hear the moving hymn which the rector of the seminary, Padre Getero, composed in honor of Dom Elias.
Juiz de Fora In this city, which is the size of Boston (about 600,000 people), the friars care for two parishes, which comprise 9 communities of parishioners. Each of these communities has its own local liturgical and social activities, and each has a church in which the friars offer Mass. This typical Brazilian ecclesial structure, which organizes parish life into local communities, also has moments when all of the communities of the parish come together for larger common liturgies, events, programs and ceremonies. While in the friary of Juiz de Fora, I participated in a “Zoom” Assembly of the whole Custody on the 6th of August. The Custody’s new Civil Statutes needed to be approved by the solemnly professed membership. The occasion of my “Canonical Visitation” accorded me an opportunity to offer to this “Zoom” Assembly of the whole Custody an exhortation about the topic of “Fraternal Life” – faithfully translated by my bilingual companion on the itinerary, Frei Jose Cardozo Junior, OFM Conv.. Overlooking the city of Juiz de Fora, on the “Morro do Christo” (Hill of Christ), an imposing 82-foot monument to Christ the Redeemer has graced the city as its protector for 115 years – a longer time period than its more famous counterpart on the Corcovado in Rio.
Andrelândia Five years ago, with the encouragement of the new Custos and the approval of his Custodial Definitory, Frei Robson Malafaia Barcellos, OFM Conv. and Frei Marcelo dos Santos da Silva, OFM Conv. undertook the creation of the first Franciscan “hermitage” among the jurisdictions of the Conventual branch of the Order in Brazil. Frei Robson was later invited by the former Minister General of the Order, the Most Reverend Fr. Marco Tasca, OFM Conv. to participate in a special international gathering of friars involved in new experiments for the deepening of the charism, life and ministry in the Order. Our Custody’s “hermitage” is named the “House of Perfect Joy,” and is located on the grounds of our former minor seminary in Andrelândia. Silence, common prayer, labor and fraternity characterize the friars’ daily horarium, which begins at 5:00 AM. Maintaining a balance of eremitical contemplation and spiritual action, they are converting the former seminary into a spirituality center, hosting daytime retreats, offering Mass, hearing confessions, doing lay Franciscan formation, and fostering the prayerful memory of our confere Frei Martinho Maria de Porres Ward, OFM Conv. Friars from other jurisdictions of the Order in Brazil have visited and shown an interest in joining the hermitage community. It is important to note that, in five years, the friars have never had to go shopping for any food except bread. The local people come regularly to provide the friars with all that they need for their daily sustenance. The local bishop has given permission for public Masses in the chapel of the former seminary. The Sunday congregation gave a special welcome to the Minister Provincial, as I offered Mass for them on the 9th of August, and preached about Frei Martinho’s holy and humble struggle against racism.
Frei Martinho de Porres Maria Ward, OFM Conv. When the Immaculate Conception Province (part of what is now Our Lady of the Angels Province) accepted the Boston-born Matthias Ward into the Order, a milestone in Conventual Franciscan history took place. Matthias, who later was given the religious name “Martin Maria de Porres” became the first African-American member of the Franciscan Friars Conventual. Having experienced the trauma of de-facto segregation in Boston and Washington during his childhood and teenage years, he was prepared for his application to the Order to be rejected. That did not happen. No sooner was he accepted in 1945 than he further rejoiced to learn the news that the Province of the Immaculate Conception was intending open the Order’s first mission in Latin America – in Brazil. He volunteered for the mission while still a seminarian. The rest is history. Before his death in Andrelândia in 1999 at the age of 81, Frei Martinho had already become “legendary” among the Brazilian people he served and the friars as well – humble, humorous, brilliant, and tireless. Since the time of his death, people have been coming steadily to pray at his grave – on the grounds of the former seminary and hermitage. On the 24th of June 2020, the local diocesan Bishop of the Diocese de São João del-Rei, after consultation with his presbyteral council, officially gave the Nihil Obstat for the friars to publicize the “fame of sanctity” of Frei Martinho Maria de Porres Ward. During the Minister Provincial’s canonical visitation, on the 9th of August, the friars gathered for prayers at the grave of Frei Martinho Maria, and I blessed portraits of our holy confrere to be hung in each of the 8 houses of the Custody. A prayer for Frei Martinho Maria’s glorification, and favors sought, is now being recited at all of public Masses at the friars’ spirituality center in Andrelândia.
Belo Horizonte The newest venture of the Custody entailed their accepting a parish in the capital city of the state of Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte is Brazil’s third largest city – with 3 million people – about the size of Chicago. After their 2017 Custodial Chapter, the friars launched their presence in Belo Horizonte at a parish with six communities, each having its own church. They are very grateful to Our Lady of the Angels Province for providing the funds for them to purchase a friary, where it is eventually hoped that older vocations of the initial formation program will be able to reside while doing their theological studies in the Catholic Theological institutes of the city. One of the staples which stamps a unique Franciscan identity upon all of the parishes staffed by our friars, not only in Belo Horizonte but throughout the Custody, is the tradition of Tuesday devotions to St. Anthony. Immediately after arriving in Belo Horizonte, the friars inaugurated this weekly event, which includes the blessing of bread which parishioners faithfully bring week after week. At the end of Mass and the novena prayers, the friars bless the bread and distribute it to the faithful in the congregation, some of whom take extra bits to share with others. The friars of Belo Horizonte also assist with liturgy at the building site of the new Cathedral of Christ the King – the last work of Brazil’s most famous modern architect Oscar Niemeyer (who died in 2012 at the age of 104). The friars arranged for the Minister Provincial to receive a “hard-hat” tour of the construction project – already underway for 8 years, with another 10 years projected before the completion of the mammoth structure – another sign of the growth of the Church in Brazil. Let me also add here, that it is important to highlight our friars’ vocational animation program in Belo Horizonte, which over the past four years has already attracted four new vocations to the Custody.
Petrópolis Franciscan formation houses are well-reputed for the charism of hospitality. Our St. Bonaventure Friary, with its 10 aspirants and postulants, along with its 2 formators and elder friar wisdom figure, did not disappoint. The meninos (“lads”) welcomed the Minister Provincial on his canonical visitation with a gauntlet of “balloons” and a “Welcome” banner scripted in English. Even the friary dog “Frei Jacopa” – happily residing in outdoor comfort! – could not resist running over to give me a welcome kiss – on the lips! The formation program in Brazil differs greatly from that in the USA. The one year of residential aspirancy is non-academic – a time for in-house immersion in fraternity, prayer, catechetics, liturgy, Franciscan sources, and human formation in areas of affection and sexuality. The postulancy (which can extend up to 3 years) is academic, with all of the lads attending philosophy courses at the local Catholic University. Both of the formators and the young men in initial formation are full of enthusiasm, and this has an appealing attractiveness to prospective vocations. The “formandi” accompany the formators for “con-vocation” visits to all of the parishes in the Custody, and other sites as well. I was impressed at the work ethic of the house. Every Saturday the lads devote the whole day to baking bread – which benefactors come to buy, and which the lads also will sell at the various local parishes and convents. They take justifiable pride that their bread apostolate covers the cost of supporting their formation program – no sense of “entitlement” in Petrópolis! At least twice a week, the formators and the “formandi” go out to celebrate liturgy (and provide the music) at the local Carmelite Nuns monastery, as well as one of the Capuchin churches. The fact that they only have two small cars makes it impossible to squeeze all 13 of the community into two vehicles at a time. So, they are accustomed to making more than one trip to the cloister or Caps each time they go. Seraphic camaraderie! – although a new van might help!
Liturgies with Consecrated Women Our friars of the Custody have been very solicitous in assisting with the liturgical and spiritual needs of the local women’s religious communities. An inspiring brother-sister relationship obtains! For the Feast of St. Clare, on the 11th of August in Belo Horizonte, we concelebrated Mass and I preached for the 3rd Order regular “Franciscan Sisters of the Lord.” For the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, on the 14th of August in Petrópolis, we friars concelebrated and I preached for the cloistered Carmelite nuns. For the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, on the 15th of August, we friars concelebrated and I preached for the cloistered Poor Clare nuns of Rio de Janeiro, where the legendary Mother Pacifica has been abbess for nearly 50 years.
Since the Feast of the Assumption this year was my 50th Jubilee of Profession of Vows, the nuns sang a robust “Happy Anniversary” (in Portuguese, of course!). [The friars in Rio Comprido followed a bit later with a special dinner for me and a cake.] What an inspiration it is to see the interaction between our friars and our sisters in the consecrated life!
Four more stops to complete my Canonical Visitation “Pilgrimage”: Rio Comprido, Costa Barros, Araruama, Brasília – and a meeting with the Custodial Definitory!
Given the lifting of many pandemic restrictions,
the remainder of the M.I. Initiative Tour has resumed.Consistent with our Franciscan charism and tradition of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our province has been progressing in our efforts to more fully tap into this devotion from our Kolbean heritage, through the example of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv., and the continued efforts of his Militia of the Immaculata’s (M.I.) unconditional consecration to the Immaculate. With a view to promoting consecration to the Immaculate among the faithful served through the ministries of our friars of Our Lady of the Angels Province, Fr. Jobe Abbass, OFM Conv., who serves as our Province MI Assistant, has completed the 23rd successful and rewarding stop on our Province M.I Initiative Tour of our pastoral ministries. Friar Jobe’s revised scheduled stops on this tour will continue through February of 2022. Keep him and all those he greets in your prayers, as he continues to preach at the Masses to encourage the faithful to consecrate themselves to the Immaculate, and to enroll in the M.I._______________________It only seemed fitting that the M.I. Initiative resume its tour of our Franciscan pastoral sites on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 14-15, 2021). Our 23rd stop was at the National Shrine of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, New York. While the number of faithful may have seemed fewer due to the recent uptick in Covid cases, their reception of the message of entrustment to Mary and enrolment in the M.I. was enthusiastic and very appreciative. Some of our new M.I. members are pictured here with Fr. Jobe.
National Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine (Fonda, NY)
St. Maximilian M. Kolbe – 14 August 2021 – Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady I Chr 14, 3-4, 15-16; 16, 1-2; 1 Cor 15, 54b-57; Lk 11, 27-28. Theme: Where, O death, is your victory” (1 Cor 15) Subtheme: “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts that at which you nursed” (Lk 11).
Licensed to Choose with Truth and a Prayerfully Formed Conscience America has undergone a sea change in culture. Long gone are the words of a Supreme Court Justice:[1] “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a DIvine being,” The spiritual air in America has changed. Ken Starr[2] observes that as a society, America is compartmentalized with outright hostility to faith and the denigration of believers’ moral and religious convictions across America.
Fittingly, Pope Francis compares the Church to a field hospital where emergency care, initial diagnosis, control of infectious diseases, and journey to health begins. I interpret Pope Francis as also subtly pleading for the faithful to think deeply with his imaginative image. Long gone is August 14, 1941 when Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M.Conv., was martyred at Auschwitz, his ashes scattered with millions of other victims, including St. Edith Stein, a genius. Long gone is the persecution of the Church seen in East Central Europe between 1946 and 1989. Our grandparents and parents grew up with this. Pope Francis looks ahead with his visionary encyclical Fratelli Tutti, brothers and sisters all. No one is ever left out.
Today, St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans remains indispensably instructive: “When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness” (2, 14-15). Fr. Kolbe lived during German National Socialism and a Soviet style of socialism which brutally stifled any and all protests. Hitler made himself deaf to the inner promptings of truth. He was a guilty criminal. The same applies to Stalin. National Socialists were judged at Nuremberg in 1948; the Soviets not yet. Have no doubt that a new Soviet style exists under Putin who gets away with it and knows it. If you have any doubt, ask our Ukrainians at our neighboring Sacred Heart Parish.
If we continue to be vigilant, America’s churches will continue to enjoy the protections in America. Being vigilant is learning the truth with martyrs as Fr. Kolbe, martyr of charity, and St. Edith Stein, a Jewish convert who became a Carmelite nun, was arrested for being Jewish, then martyred in Auschwitz. “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith” (1 Peter 5, 8-9a).
Sts. Maximilian and Edith Stein met the Lord repeatedly in the wonderous sacrament of the Eucharist, the sacrament in which Jesus continues to love us to the end. To counter the secularist onslaught, let us allow the Eucharistic mystery to awaken wonder in our hearts! St. Clare of Assisi exemplified sublime reverence for the Eucharist. In the Eucharistic mystery, we come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. That is why we receive the Eucharist with a conscience in the best order possible. St. John Henry Newman, the English convert and great Doctor of Conscience, earned moral authority on his genial clarifications about the meaning of conscience and how to recognize a counterfeit conscience. Parents and Catholic teachers, especially, have an unequaled treasure about the subtleties of conscience to best equip their children to live in our secular culture.
The spiritual air in America has changed. The claim that conscience is a free radical is growing, but is not truly Catholic. The false direction needs push back. Catholics join those who seek the truth. Catholics know that we are not the final authority. Truth may appear as shadows as for St. John Henry Newman, but we listen to God deep in our hearts before exercising our conscience by acting. Successive victories in America proves that our freedom is a hard-fought freedom.[3] Freedom of conscience is priceless. Look around the world where public expression of claims to freedom would land us in jail.
A person may never act against convictions that one has arrived at in the moment of acting. If a person has stifled a protest that is from a law written deep in one’s heart, it could be wrong to have arrived at such convictions. Reception of the sacrament of reconciliation is the priceless strengthening.
In America, there will be a constant battle for religious liberty. Hard fought and costly victories, including at the Supreme Court, secured an emerging clarity of principles that makes America the land of the free. Protecting and defending a culture of freedom is a challenge when outright hostility to faith and disparagement of the rights of believers’ moral and religious beliefs is in plain sight. As the culture changes, Catholics contribute to making life in America and in the world more conscious of human dignity, the personal quest for truth, and respect for the primacy of conscience of every individual.
Am I a servant of God or of the State? Duties towards God and duties towards the State often reveal themselves as contraries. Life demands that we make choices. We may be reluctant, but we are not passive to making choices. God helps us to judge how to engage critically the growing secular attitude that religious witness and religious judgments have to be overridden.
Being starved to death without food or water proved Fr. Kolbe’s duties toward God outranked duties towards the State. He joined millions of martyrs and victims whose numbers are increasing and prove that “the Christian is licensed to defer the choice in which we acknowledge that the God revealed by Christ and witnessed in the Scriptures is alone worthy of our adoration and our trust” (Cyril O’Regan).
Fr. Kolbe loved and did not hate the world, the State, or those who were complicit with National Socialism. Fr. Kolbe loved and desired God. He loved Our Lady. He loved learning and the search for knowledge. Always looking ahead, Fr. Kolbe pioneered the power of mass media as an evangelizer and purveyor of truth. What might Fr. Kolbe think of the quest for truth and response of the media today?
At the moment he answered the camp commandant at Auschwitz with “I am a Catholic priest,” Fr. Kolbe exercised freely and openly that he was licensed to choose. He chose to trust and to adore Christ. The commandant, acting in the name of the totalitarian regime, licensed Fr. Kolbe’s execution.
Catholics are licensed to choose, to seek truth, to form conscience, to recognize individual rights, competing views, the need for negotiation and to respect all religions. A breakdown of civility hides a two-edged sword of freedom of religion on one side, while on the other, a secularized society does not always agree with religious judgments. Secular society wants freedom of religion to be policed by law even though law itself is necessarily merely of human origin. If human power is used to override religious judgments, every time believers meet St. Paul: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15).
Most of all, Our Lady’s Assumption is the final victory through our Savior Jesus Christ! At our death, Mary our Mother will be with us and have a place for us. Death will never have the final victory!
In Celebration of My Golden Jubilee of Priesthood Homilies, Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, O.F.M.Conv.[4]
eondrako@alumni.nd.edu
_________________________________
[1] Attributed to Supreme Court Justice William O Douglas.
[2] Ken Starr, Religious Liberty in Crisis (New York: Encounter Books, 2021), 163-173.
[3] In 1914 my grandfather who fought in Balkan wars left Austria-Hungary. He loved America. My father, a World War II veteran, was to be deployed as a translator. Would I have been born and served as a Franciscan priest?
[4] See P. D. Fehlner, Theologian of Auschwitz (Hobe Sound, FL: Lectio Press, 2020); E. Ondrako, Rebuild My Church (Hobe Sound, FL: Lectio Press, 2021). Fehlner critically engages Fr. Kolbe and Ondrako explains Fehlner in detail.
Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
August 14, 2021
On August 14th we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv. This 5-part series introduces a contemporary voiced “St. Max” as himself presenting his message.
On Sunday, August 8, 2021, Our Lady of the Angels Province Vicar Provincial, Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. was on hand at our Syracuse, NY pastoral ministry of Assumption Church, to celebrate the Mass including the Volunteer Commissioning of the FrancisCorps 23.
Our Lady of the Angels Province Vocation Director, Br. Nick Romeo, OFM Conv. was on hand at the August 4th “The Tenth Hour: Bishop’s Vocations Picnic,” held by Diocese of Syracuse Vocations. He joined representatives from several Religious Orders, along with diocesan priests and seminarians, to help promote vocations.
The Diocese of Syracuse held its annual “The Tenth Hour” bishop’s vocation picnic. Young people from around the diocese were invited by their pastors to attend. The evening consisted of food, small group sharing, a panel discussion, a Holy Hour, and an opportunity for the young people to chat with representatives of various religious communities present in the diocese.
{Photo gleaned from the Facebook page of Diocese of Syracuse Vocations}
*Prayerfully consider adding life as a Franciscan Friar Conventual to your own discernment journey. Contact Br. Nick at vocations@olaprovince.org for info.
Pax et Bonum!
August 5, 2021 Dedication and Blessing of “Rua Dom Elias James Manning,”
Valença, Brazil: During his Provincial Visit with the friars of our Province’s Immaculate Conception Custody in Brazil, our Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv., took part in another extraordinary event, as the city renamed the street next to the cathedral in honor of our late Franciscan friar-Bishop. +Bishop Elias James Manning, OFM Conv., Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Valença (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil), passed away on October 13, 2019. The dedication was part of the 185th Feast day celebration at Valença Brazil’s Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Glória.
The Unveiling
The Blessing
Message presented at the time, by Fr. James:
Reflection – Bishop Elias Manning, OFM Conv. Dom Elias was my good friend, and my Franciscan brother. I had the honor to be his last Provincial. Dom Elias loved my name “James” because his own name at baptism was “James.” When he first joined the Franciscan Friars, over sixty years ago, he was given the religious name “Elias.” God chose a very appropriate religious name for him, because the prophet Elias was the greatest missionary in the Old Testament. Like the prophet, the missionary friar Elias preached and lived a simple message: We must love God and love our neighbor. Dom Elias as Bishop of Valença became an icon of goodness for everyone to see and love. He lived a simple life in compassionate solidarity with the poor, the sorrowing, the meek, those thirsting for justice, those needful of mercy, the pure of heart, the seekers of peace. Dom Elias radiated the Beatitudes. On behalf of his Franciscan family, I thank you very much for honoring him today in his beloved city of Valença.
Valença City Councilor – Mr. Bernardos Machado, Frei Michel da Cruz Alves dos Santos, OFM Conv. the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv., and Dom Nelson Francelino Ferreira, Bishop of Valença, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Translation from Original Facebook Post of Paróquia São Francisco de Assis:
“Today in Valença a fair tribute to the esteemed Dom Frei Elias James Manning OFM Conv.
A street next to the cathedral took its name. Beautiful and fair tribute! Congratulations to the authorities involved. The sixth bishop of the diocese of Valença was the longest prelate in the diocesan government. He loved his diocesans and even after emeritus he chose to remain living in the diocese. I praise God that I had a father, for he was the one who raised me to the priesthood. The last diocesan priest ordered by him. Simple, shy and extremely humble man.
Dom Elijah, I know you didn’t like these things, but the Lord’s passage between us was so simple and calm that we need to immortalize it, yes.
From heaven to God for us!
Rest In Peace bishop-brother.
Source: Pe. Thiago Toledo
The City of Valença had already renamed its Prefeitura Municipal de Valença Centro Administrativo Secretaria Municipal de Educação [The Education Department] building in honor of +Bishop Elias
Many people visit his tomb daily in the crypt of Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Glória (Our Lady of Glory Cathedral), in Valença
Our Siler City, NC pastoral ministry of St. Julia Catholic Community is a welcoming, multicultural Christian Catholic community in the heart of Chatham County, with a rich parish history. This past year and a half have been tough on parish communities throughout the world, but July 2021 was a big month for the St Julia Catholic Communityas they, and their pastor – Fr. Julio Martinez, OFM Conv. (pictured at right), welcomed a new Deacon and are planning to grow the Middle School, High School and Young Adult Ministry. This vibrant parish provides parishioners and visitors with not only Liturgical and Sacramental celebration opportunities, but Discipleship, Community, Social and Outreach events, as well. This past July 2021, the St. Julia’s Sister Mission and Justice and Peace Committees welcomed Our Lady of the Angles Province Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Chairman & Friar Julio’s confrere – Fr. Michael Lasky, OFM Conv. – for a conversation about the parish’s social ministry journey, while hearing about Friar Michael’s own journey with JPIC.
At the end of last month, during the evenings of July 26 – 30, 2021, the young people of the parish ages 7-12, were able to join in “Rocky Railway – Jesus’ Power Pulls Us Through” Summer Bible Study. Friar Julio shared some great photos from the week stating, “Our little ones traveled ‘on the train’ for a week and had lots of fun with Jesus too! Our volunteers and catechists are totally awesome!”
This is a small city, where the friars have one large parish that includes 11 communities of parishioners, each with its own church, at which the friars offer Masses. There are many farms in the area. During my canonical visitation here, the 3rd to 5th of August, I was taken to visit a typical small farm, where a parishioner, the 19-year old farmer Elias, positively delighted to welcome us to his barnyard, which resembled Noah’s Ark. In one and the same farm plot, cows mingled with donkeys and horses, while goats climbed haystacks, piglets muddied themselves, and the hens, roosters and geese managed to stay out of trouble with each other. Elias felt that the Minister Provincial’s blessing of the whole “Noah’s Ark” would help it resemble Isaiah’s “peaceable kingdom.” Later that evening, Elias, in gratitude, brought a gift of appreciation to the friary: a round of cheese that he had just made from the milk of his cows.
The friars have no friaries or ministry sites in the city of Valença, but the diocesan see holds a unique and dear place in Franciscan hearts. Here, +Frei Elias James Manning, OFM Conv. served as the 6th Bishop of the Diocese, for 24 graced years. When he assumed his episcopal office, “Dom Elias” chose, as a poor friar, to live in a small apartment behind in the seminary building behind the official Bishop’s Palace. His humble style left such an impression on the people that a steady stream now come to pray at his tomb in the crypt of Valença’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Glory. His successor Bishop Nelson Ferreira invited the Minister Provincial to participate in special ceremonies on the 5th of August for the city’s re-naming of the street behind the Cathedral, now called “Rua Dom Elias James Manning.” The prefecture of the city of Valença also took the unique step of naming its Secretariat of Education’s Administration Building after Dom Elias. At a special dinner hosted by Dom Nelson, the friars were treated to hear the moving hymn which the rector of the seminary, Padre Getero, composed in honor of Dom Elias.
In this city, which is the size of Boston (about 600,000 people), the friars care for two parishes, which comprise 9 communities of parishioners. Each of these communities has its own local liturgical and social activities, and each has a church in which the friars offer Mass. This typical Brazilian ecclesial structure, which organizes parish life into local communities, also has moments when all of the communities of the parish come together for larger common liturgies, events, programs and ceremonies. While in the friary of Juiz de Fora, I participated in a “Zoom” Assembly of the whole Custody on the 6th of August. The Custody’s new Civil Statutes needed to be approved by the solemnly professed membership. The occasion of my “Canonical Visitation” accorded me an opportunity to offer to this “Zoom” Assembly of the whole Custody an exhortation about the topic of “Fraternal Life” – faithfully translated by my bilingual companion on the itinerary, Frei Jose Cardozo Junior, OFM Conv.. Overlooking the city of Juiz de Fora, on the “Morro do Christo” (Hill of Christ), an imposing 82-foot monument to Christ the Redeemer has graced the city as its protector for 115 years – a longer time period than its more famous counterpart on the Corcovado in Rio.
Five years ago, with the encouragement of the new Custos and the approval of his Custodial Definitory, Frei Robson Malafaia Barcellos, OFM Conv. and Frei Marcelo dos Santos da Silva, OFM Conv. undertook the creation of the first Franciscan “hermitage” among the jurisdictions of the Conventual branch of the Order in Brazil. Frei Robson was later invited by the former Minister General of the Order, the Most Reverend Fr. Marco Tasca, OFM Conv. to participate in a special international gathering of friars involved in new experiments for the deepening of the charism, life and ministry in the Order. Our Custody’s “hermitage” is named the “House of Perfect Joy,” and is located on the grounds of our former minor seminary in Andrelândia. Silence, common prayer, labor and fraternity characterize the friars’ daily horarium, which begins at 5:00 AM. Maintaining a balance of eremitical contemplation and spiritual action, they are converting the former seminary into a spirituality center, hosting daytime retreats, offering Mass, hearing confessions, doing lay Franciscan formation, and fostering the prayerful memory of our confere Frei Martinho Maria de Porres Ward, OFM Conv. Friars from other jurisdictions of the Order in Brazil have visited and shown an interest in joining the hermitage community. It is important to note that, in five years, the friars have never had to go shopping for any food except bread. The local people come regularly to provide the friars with all that they need for their daily sustenance. The local bishop has given permission for public Masses in the chapel of the former seminary. The Sunday congregation gave a special welcome to the Minister Provincial, as I offered Mass for them on the 9th of August, and preached about Frei Martinho’s holy and humble struggle against racism.
When the Immaculate Conception Province (part of what is now Our Lady of the Angels Province) accepted the Boston-born Matthias Ward into the Order, a milestone in Conventual Franciscan history took place. Matthias, who later was given the religious name “Martin Maria de Porres” became the first African-American member of the Franciscan Friars Conventual. Having experienced the trauma of de-facto segregation in Boston and Washington during his childhood and teenage years, he was prepared for his application to the Order to be rejected. That did not happen. No sooner was he accepted in 1945 than he further rejoiced to learn the news that the Province of the Immaculate Conception was intending open the Order’s first mission in Latin America – in Brazil. He volunteered for the mission while still a seminarian. The rest is history. Before his death in Andrelândia in 1999 at the age of 81, Frei Martinho had already become “legendary” among the Brazilian people he served and the friars as well – humble, humorous, brilliant, and tireless. Since the time of his death, people have been coming steadily to pray at his grave – on the grounds of the former seminary and hermitage. On the 24th of June 2020, the local diocesan Bishop of the Diocese de São João del-Rei, after consultation with his presbyteral council, officially gave the Nihil Obstat for the friars to publicize the “fame of sanctity” of Frei Martinho Maria de Porres Ward. During the Minister Provincial’s canonical visitation, on the 9th of August, the friars gathered for prayers at the grave of Frei Martinho Maria, and I blessed portraits of our holy confrere to be hung in each of the 8 houses of the Custody. A prayer for Frei Martinho Maria’s glorification, and favors sought, is now being recited at all of public Masses at the friars’ spirituality center in Andrelândia.
The newest venture of the Custody entailed their accepting a parish in the capital city of the state of Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte is Brazil’s third largest city – with 3 million people – about the size of Chicago. After their 2017 Custodial Chapter, the friars launched their presence in Belo Horizonte at a parish with six communities, each having its own church. They are very grateful to Our Lady of the Angels Province for providing the funds for them to purchase a friary, where it is eventually hoped that older vocations of the initial formation program will be able to reside while doing their theological studies in the Catholic Theological institutes of the city. One of the staples which stamps a unique Franciscan identity upon all of the parishes staffed by our friars, not only in Belo Horizonte but throughout the Custody, is the tradition of Tuesday devotions to St. Anthony. Immediately after arriving in Belo Horizonte, the friars inaugurated this weekly event, which includes the blessing of bread which parishioners faithfully bring week after week. At the end of Mass and the novena prayers, the friars bless the bread and distribute it to the faithful in the congregation, some of whom take extra bits to share with others. The friars of Belo Horizonte also assist with liturgy at the building site of the new Cathedral of Christ the King – the last work of Brazil’s most famous modern architect Oscar Niemeyer (who died in 2012 at the age of 104). The friars arranged for the Minister Provincial to receive a “hard-hat” tour of the construction project – already underway for 8 years, with another 10 years projected before the completion of the mammoth structure – another sign of the growth of the Church in Brazil. Let me also add here, that it is important to highlight our friars’ vocational animation program in Belo Horizonte, which over the past four years has already attracted four new vocations to the Custody.
Franciscan formation houses are well-reputed for the charism of hospitality. Our St. Bonaventure Friary, with its 10 aspirants and postulants, along with its 2 formators and elder friar wisdom figure, did not disappoint. The meninos (“lads”) welcomed the Minister Provincial on his canonical visitation with a gauntlet of “balloons” and a “Welcome” banner scripted in English. Even the friary dog “Frei Jacopa” – happily residing in outdoor comfort! – could not resist running over to give me a welcome kiss – on the lips! The formation program in Brazil differs greatly from that in the USA. The one year of residential aspirancy is non-academic – a time for in-house immersion in fraternity, prayer, catechetics, liturgy, Franciscan sources, and human formation in areas of affection and sexuality. The postulancy (which can extend up to 3 years) is academic, with all of the lads attending philosophy courses at the local Catholic University. Both of the formators and the young men in initial formation are full of enthusiasm, and this has an appealing attractiveness to prospective vocations. The “formandi” accompany the formators for “con-vocation” visits to all of the parishes in the Custody, and other sites as well. I was impressed at the work ethic of the house. Every Saturday the lads devote the whole day to baking bread – which benefactors come to buy, and which the lads also will sell at the various local parishes and convents. They take justifiable pride that their bread apostolate covers the cost of supporting their formation program – no sense of “entitlement” in Petrópolis! At least twice a week, the formators and the “formandi” go out to celebrate liturgy (and provide the music) at the local Carmelite Nuns monastery, as well as one of the Capuchin churches. The fact that they only have two small cars makes it impossible to squeeze all 13 of the community into two vehicles at a time. So, they are accustomed to making more than one trip to the cloister or Caps each time they go. Seraphic camaraderie! – although a new van might help!
Our friars of the Custody have been very solicitous in assisting with the liturgical and spiritual needs of the local women’s religious communities. An inspiring brother-sister relationship obtains! For the Feast of St. Clare, on the 11th of August in Belo Horizonte, we concelebrated Mass and I preached for the 3rd Order regular “Franciscan Sisters of the Lord.” For the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, on the 14th of August in Petrópolis, we friars concelebrated and I preached for the cloistered Carmelite nuns. For the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, on the 15th of August, we friars concelebrated and I preached for the cloistered Poor Clare nuns of Rio de Janeiro, where the legendary Mother Pacifica has been abbess for nearly 50 years.
St. Maximilian M. Kolbe – 14 August 2021 – Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady
Visit of the Provincial Friar James to the Construction of the Cathedral of Christ Rei
August 5, 2021 Dedication and Blessing of “Rua Dom Elias James Manning,”
