Notable events for the month of February include:
One Year Ago
Feb. 13-14, 2014 — The Province announced its decision to withdraw from two parishes in the Archdiocese of New York: St. Mary Parish, Obernburg, and St. Anthony Parish, Yulan. (The friars officially withdrew from both parishes later that summer.)
Five Years Ago
Feb. 14, 2010 — Sacred Heart Parish in Tampa, Fla., began its 150th anniversary celebrations with a jubilee Mass. Provincial Minister John O’Connor, OFM, presided and preached.
10 Years Ago
Feb. 1, 2005 — The Province announced that it would relinquish two New Jersey parishes — St. Leo, Elmwood Park, and St. Anne, Fair Lawn — to the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.
15 Years Ago
Feb. 2, 2000 — The HNP novices began a two-month cultural and language program at the friary in Cochabamba, Bolivia — the first class to do so.
Feb. 17, 2000 — The provincial councils of Holy Name and Immaculate Conception Provinces met at the latter’s provincial office to discuss the mutual observation of the provinces’ upcoming jubilees, as well as possible collaborative ministerial ventures.
30 Years Ago
Feb. 2, 1985 — St. Bonaventure University’s board of trustees approved the university’s purchase of the friary, what is known today as Doyle Hall. (In the 1980s, as a response to the declining population of the Franciscan community on campus and the growing need for more student housing, it was decided the friary would be sold to the university. The funds from the sale were used to build the current St. Bonaventure Friary, which was dedicated on Sept. 26, 1986.)
95 Years Ago
Feb. 5, 1920 — Francis Koch, OFM, a pioneer friar who established more than 43 churches throughout his lifetime, died in St. Anthony Friary, Butler, N.J. (He was responsible for building churches and starting missions in Butler, Elmwood Park, Greenwood Lake, Lincoln Park, Little Falls, Pompton Lakes, Ringwood, Rochelle Park, Wanaque, West Milford and Wyckoff, N.J., to name a few.)
— Compiled by Maria Hayes