NEW YORK – Below are news items about some of the many activities of Holy Name friars, including their presentations, publications, and ministry work. More information can be obtained by visiting links to the parishes and organizations mentioned, by contacting the friars by phone or e-mail, and by contacting the Communications Office.
To provide news briefs for future issues of HNP Today, e-mail Jocelyn Thomas at communications@hnp.org
► Over Easter weekend, March 21 to 23, David Bossman, OFM, of Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J., led a seminar titled, “Jesus in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives,” at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif. Following the presentation, he attended a four-day Abrahamic Family Reunion Conference as an invited guest, also at the Esalen Institute. David has been an ongoing invited participant in the Abrahamic Family Reunion project, which is led by Dr. Joseph Montville, a former U.S. State Department official, and is sponsored by the Fetzer Institute. Dr. Montville’s project falls under the aegis of Track II Diplomacy, a term which he coined to describe interpersonal contacts to advance building bridges of understanding among contending social groups.
► Bernard Creighton, OFM, traveled to Waverly, N.Y., near his hometown of Elmira, N.Y., for Holy Week. As he has done for nearly 30 years, at Christmas and Easter time, Bernard celebrated Mass at St, James Church. Bernie reports that he has another long relationship with a New Jersey church of the same name. Since 1995, Bernie has said weekend Masses at St. James Church in Red Bank, N. J.
► Louis Iasiello, OFM, begins work this month as part of a presidential congressionally-mandated Department of Defense Task Force. Louis was selected by the executive and legislative branches of government to act as a federal commissioner on the force (one of 12 judges, flag officers and national leaders in the field) to report on sexual harassment, violence and quality of life issues that impact our servicemen and women at a time of war. Congress passed a bill to establish the task force after a former presidential task force completed its work of study issues at West Point and the Naval and Air Force academies and reported its recommendations to Congress. Lou was also a commissioner on the completed Military Academies Task Force.
► The Palm Sunday Mass at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Md., was featured in the March 20 issue of The Catholic Standard, the diocesan publication. The article talks of the multitude of parishioners at the Mass, the diverse community, and the homily of Michael Johnson, OFM.
► Siena College President Kevin Mullen, OFM, recently addressed the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick at Wolfert’s Roost Country Club in Menands, N.Y. Following that event, he traveled to Florida for the NCAA basketball tournament, where he watched Siena win the first round, then lose in the second. During the week of March 31, Kevin visited college alumni in North Carolina. This week, he is participating in a meeting of the National College Athletic Association, in conjunction with the basketball championship. This semester, Kevin is leading a seminar course for 18 students via the Franciscan Center for Service and Advocacy.
► Russel Murray, OFM, participated recently in a gathering of the men’s vocations group at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. The group consists of four undergraduates in various stages of discernment, under the encouragement of GWU’s Catholic Campus Minister Fr. Peter Giovanoni, of the D.C. archdiocese. Russel spoke with the group over dinner at the rectory of St. Stephen the Martyr Parish in downtown D.C. Shortly after taking over as regional vocation director, Russel contacted the campus ministers of the D.C. area’s numerous colleges and universities, requesting permission to display Province vocation literature in their campus ministry centers and to promote the Franciscan Order among students. Many of the area ministers met with Russel and accepted the literature, he said.
► Joseph Nangle, OFM, spoke last month at a Department of Energy hearing. On March 25, he and several others presented testimony as an ambassador of peace for Pax Christi-USA, and offered opposition to a planned renewal of the United States’ nuclear arsenal. “It’s a monstrous project,” said Joseph, “to which over the next decades will cost tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars. The new generation of nuclear weapons is programmed to take the United States into the 22nd century.”
► Provincial Minister John O’Connor, OFM, is attending St. Bonaventure University’s Gaudete Awards dinner in Rochester, N.Y., on April 10. He will be presenting an awrad to Bishop Matthew Clark, the spiritual leader for the Diocese of Rochester.
► Andrew Reitz, OFM, and Juan de la Cruz Turcios, OFM, of Sacred Heart Parish in Tampa, Fla., were mentioned in an article in the Feb. 1 issue of the Tampa Tribune about the cancer battle of a staff member. It described the energy and attitude of Jean Cossman, the parish’s director of liturgy and music. George Corrigan, OFM, suggested that readers of HNP Today might be interested in her story; it can be read using the link ot theTampa Tribune below.
► Robert Struzynski, OFM, of Mt. Irenaeus has been teaching a mini-course called “The Relation Between Faith and Contemporary Science” in a dormitory at St. Bonaventure University. This free course is meant to be a “walk with the students through the peaks and valleys in the search to integrate one’s faith with the new worldview emerging from evolutionary biology, big bang cosmology and quantum physics,” according to the Mountain’s newsletter. “It is a way in which the Mountain teams up with the university in the common goal of education in the Franciscan tradition.”