Friar News Briefs

HNP Communications Friar News

The updates below describe activities of Holy Name friars and feature celebrations, presentations, and ministry events. For more information, email the friars, contact the HNP Communications Office, or visit links to the parishes and organizations mentioned.

To provide news briefs for future articles, email information to communications director Jocelyn Thomas at communications@hnp.org.

From the Provincial Administration
Friars are reminded to register by Jan. 26 for one of the 10 regional days being held in February and March. A list of locations and dates and a registration form were emailed to friars on Jan. 12.
The 2018 edition of the Memorial Days of Deceased Friars booklet has been printed and is being mailed to HNP friaries this month.

► Three friars from Siena College – Lawrence Anderson, OFM, F. Edward Coughlin, OFM, and Mark Reamer, OFM – returned to the United States on Jan. 6 after leading students on a trip through Italy. According to the college, some of Mark’s students spent their winter break there working on their final. “No need for sympathy – they’re doing it from Italy. The course, ‘Italy Travel: Siena Mission Tradition. Transformed,’ explores the origin and global impact of the Franciscan tradition. That exploration began in the classroom but concluded with a pilgrimage to Italy. Their journey from Siena the college to Siena the city, then Florence, Assisi, and Rome was led by Fr. Mark, Br. Ed, and Fr. Larry. Walking on the exact same ground where St. Francis once walked, the students are learning how the Franciscan spiritual and intellectual tradition animates the Siena mission.”

► Siena College president F. Edward Coughlin, OFM, was featured in the Albany Times Union last week in a story titled “20 Things You Don’t Know About Me.” It contains 20 photos showing Edward through the years.

► On Monday, Kevin Cronin, OFM, gave a talk titled “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About St. Francis of Assisi and Never Even Thought of Asking” to the Men’s Forum at Sts. Phillip and James Parish, St. James, Long Island, N.Y., where he is helping for two weeks. The bulletin announcement on the parish’s website provided information. Next month, he will go to St. Ignatius Parish in Long Beach, Long Island, for two weeks, before he starts five back-to-back Lenten missions. Schedule information is available on the website of the Ministry of the Word website, of which Kevin is a member.

► During a liturgy commemorating the feast of St. Genevieve on Jan. 21, Thomas Gallagher, OFM, blessed a group of six parishioners from St. Patrick-St Anthony Parish in Hartford, Conn., who are traveling this week to Haiti. The feast of St. Genevieve was celebrated at the 5 p.m. Mass on Sunday. Traveling from Jan. 25 to 30 to the village of Fouji in Zoranje with the parishioners will be Cidouane Joseph, OFM, a native of Haiti, who is stationed at the Hartford parish.

► Pius Liu, OFM, of Taiwan, is turning 97 years old on Jan. 24. “I am very grateful to God for all I am still able to do,” he said in a recent email to the HNP Communications Office. Pius, who professed his first vows as a friar in 1956, celebrated his birthday with a party on Jan. 20.

► Russel Murray, OFM, convened the first meeting of the Commission on the Order’s Ministry in Education from Jan. 7 to 10 at the General Curia in Rome. A story was posted on the Order’s website. Russel is the general animator for evangelization for the Order of Friars Minor.

► An article about Francis House in Dumfries, Va., was published in the Jan. 10 issue of the Arlington, Va., Catholic Herald. The story, titled “Francis House Helps Out in Triangle,” describes the work of the facility that opened 26 years ago to serve clients in Dumfries, Quantico, and Triangle, where St. Francis of Assisi Parish is located. The volunteers “help with rent, utilities, food and prescriptions, and also offer help translating, filling out forms and even homework. During the recent cold snap, St. Francis House delivered food to disabled and homebound clients to keep them out of the cold. They also opened their doors as usual on Jan. 3 despite the snowfall. They provided meals to the Bill Mehr Drop-In Shelter in Woodbridge Jan. 6.” The paper states that it was the vision of John O’Connor, OFM, pastor of St. Francis Parish, to open St. Francis House in 1992. “As I looked around this neighborhood and this community, it became clear to me that there were a lot of people in need of the services we could provide,” he said. “As Pope Francis keeps reminding us, we should reach out to those who are poor, to those who are alienated in any way from society. As Franciscans, that is part of our tradition going back 800 years to the life of St. Francis.”

► The parish mission given in November by Francis Pompei, OFM, was covered by IC Good News, a publication of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Fayetteville, N.Y., near Syracuse, which hosted the event titled “There’s Another Way.” Each presentation contained prayer, scripture and a short talk accompanied by a video. “Fr. Pompei, a former parish priest who joined the Franciscans to minister to the poor and needy, gives retreats and workshops for both adults and teenagers,” according to the story. “From years of careful listening, he learned that young and old are worried, frightened and often unhappy, so he set out to understand why: stress!”

Topics that will be featured in future issues of this newsletter include:

  • A new book by a friar who is a former college president
  • Catholic Schools Week
  • Celebration of the 40th ordination anniversary of a friar
  • 2018 Jubilarians

— Compiled by Jocelyn Thomas

Editor’s note: The format of Friar News Briefs lists, in alternating issues, shows names organized by friars’ last names, in ascending (A to Z) order, followed — in the next issue — by names listed in descending (Z to A) order.

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