Below are updates about some of the many activities of Holy Name friars, including their celebrations, presentations and ministry events. More information can be obtained by visiting links to the parishes and organizations mentioned, by contacting the friars by phone or email and by connecting with the Communications Office.
To provide news briefs for future issues of HNP Today, email information to communications director Jocelyn Thomas.
Raphael Bonanno, OFM, of Boston, is traveling to Madrid, Spain, next week to participate in World Youth Day. The friar, who turned 75 in April, said he is attending because “some of my friends friends attended previous World Youth Days and said they were a great faith experience.” He noted: “Youth are the future of a broken church and much depends on how they grow in the faith.” He plans to meet up with groups from Boston and Quebec while at the Aug. 16 to 21 event.
Franciscan Mission Service board members George Corrigan, OFM, Joseph Nangle, OFM, and John O’Connor, OFM, participated in the semi-annual FMS board meeting on July 29. Among the topics discussed was the upcoming trip of the FMS director Kim Smolik to Kenya, where she will visit the JPIC Office in Nairobi to discuss the possibility of a new mission site.
The Province’s Franciscan Volunteer Ministry, based in Philadelphia where Michael Duffy, OFM, is the site supervisor, will be staffed with 15 volunteers this year. The young people, who will serve in two other communities — Camden, N.J., where Hugh Macsherry, OFM, is the supervisor and Wilmington, Del., where Christopher Posch, OFM, is supervisor — will begin their 2011 year on Aug. 21.
Holy Name Province friars who do not have the Province’s official ID card showing their photo and current address are asked to contact Octavio Duran, OFM.
William Fitzgerald, OFM, guardian of Quam Bonam Friary in Falmouth, Mass., was elected president of the Cliff Dweller’s Homeowners Association, Inc., at its annual meeting last month. He will serve for a three-year period for this Cape Cod group.
The 2011 Provincial Catalog is being shipped this week, according to Provincial Secretary Michael Harlan, OFM, who was photographed last week with John O’Connor taking a look at the new edition. The picture was posted on the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province Facebook page. All HNP friars are expected to have received their copies by Aug. 15.
Kenneth Himes, OFM, was the keynote speaker at the 12th annual conference of the Association of Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities from July 26 to 29. The conference — held at Boston College where Ken is an associate professor of theology — brings together professed and lay people involved in campus ministry at Catholic institutions of higher education, said Gregory Jakubowitz, OFM. Greg attended the conference with fellow Siena College friars Russel Murray, OFM, and Dennis Tamburello, OFM, who was a featured presenter.
Daniel Horan, OFM, gave a talk titled “Thomas Merton’s Franciscan Spirituality: How the Most Famous American Spiritual Writer of the 20th Century was Influenced by St. Francis and his followers” at St. Francis of Assisi Parishon Long Beach Island, N.J., July 26 and 27. Dan, who announced this and other events on his blog, Dating God, will profess his final vows as a Franciscan on Aug. 27.
Br. Jerry’s Community Garden is expanding, according to the June 2011 issue of St. Anthony of Padua Parish newsletter. The issue announced the recent approval by the city of Camden of an adjoining lot. The garden, named for Gerald Hudson, OFM, who died in 2010, allows 32 neighborhood families to raise their own vegetables and flowers in the heart of the city.
Michael Johnson, OFM, pastor of St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring, Md., participated with the St. Francis Builds group in its recent trip to El Salvador. Information about the project is available on the St. Camillus website and Facebook page as well as on Michael’s blog, “Reflections of a Franciscan Gardener.”
The legacy of Mychal Judge, OFM, was described by Kelly Ann Lynch, founder of Mychal’s Message, in an Aug. 8 interview with the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y. She, her mother and her daughter are founders of the Lancaster, Pa., based organization established in early 2002. The interview will air on Telecare, the television station of Rockville Centre which is developing a show about the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
An article by Christopher Keenan, OFM, chaplain to the Fire Department of New York, appears in the current issue of the newsletter of the FDNY Holy Name Society. It is titled “Taking Wisdom from the Past, Bringing it into the Present and Creating the Future.”
A message from Kevin Mackin, OFM, about the feast days of “two stars in Catholic Christianity” was distributed on Aug. 5 to the community of Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y. Kevin, the college’s president, described the feasts of saints Dominic and Clare.
Dominic Monti, OFM, secretary of formation and studies, visited six Holy Name Province student friars — John Aherne, George Camacho, OFM, Ross Chamberland, OFM, Gerald Hopeck, OFM, Jeffery Jordan, OFM, andMichael Reyes, OFM — on Aug 2 at Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, Calif. The young friars are taking part in a philosophy program conducted by friars of St. Barbara Province. During the four-week program, which runs from July 18 to Aug. 12, students are taking two courses: Classical Foundations of Franciscan Thought by Fr. Thomas Herbst, OFM, and Franciscan Philosophy of Nature, by Br. Keith Warner, OFM. “The students have found the program very profitable,” Dominic said. He discussed with the instructors how HNP friars might continue to participate in the future.
Provincial Minister John O’Connor, OFM, is traveling to Wisconsin tomorrow for the reception of novices at the Interprovincial Novitiate in Burlington. Three HNP men — John Aherne, Pedro Corces, and Jeffrey Upshaw — will be formally received on Aug. 15. Since Sunday, John has been in Denver with the Provincial Council members for their monthly meeting.
Steven Patti, OFM, attended a “Toolbox for New Pastors” workshop in New Jersey last month. The July 17 to 22 event was sponsored by the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. Steven said, “I found it very worthwhile and helpful, especially with so much to learn (at my new parish, Church of St. Mary on Broadway).” He said it was “interesting” to talk with the other new pastors. “One from Madison, Wis., was responsible for six parishes,” Steve said in the July 31 parish bulletin. On Aug. 7, he served as guest preacher at a Sunday morning Mass for the feast of St. Dominic at St. Pius V Church in Providence.
Steven Pavignano, OFM, celebrated his first weekend Masses at St. Clare Parish last week after officially becoming the pastor of the Buffalo, N.Y., parish on Aug. 1. Also on the weekend of Aug. 6, he attended the parishes carnival. In honor of the feast of St. Clare, Steve is planning a Transitus for Aug. 10 and Mass on Aug. 11.
A July 27, 2011, article in the Buffalo News showed Ronald Pecci, OFM, blessing three men who were setting out on a 25-day bike trip — that began in 1986 but stopped due to an accident — to raise money for a new Seneca-Baback Community Center. The three men, who knew Ronald from their former parish, plan to finish their journey on Aug. 22.
Joseph Rozansky, OFM, of the OFM Office of Justice, Peace and Integrity for Creation, reminds friars that resources about the 25th anniversary of the Spirit of Assisi can be found on the Order of Friars Minor website.
News for the next issue of HNP Today is requested by Aug. 17 (always the Wednesday before the newsletter’s publication date). Updates about Province ministries and friars can be found on the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province Facebook page, which has nearly 800 followers.
Topics that will be featured in upcoming issues of this newsletter include:
· World Youth Day
· Solemn profession of two friars on Aug. 27
· New ministries being launched around the Province
· Mychal Judge Walk of Remembrance and other commemorations of the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11
· The music ministry of Holy Name of Jesus Church in New York City
— Compiled by Jocelyn Thomas