SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — July was a month of celebration for the friars of St. Barbara Province.
On July 2, three friars professed their first vows as Franciscans and six others were received as novices. Photos of these two events as well as the July 12 celebration of the 50th anniversary of ordination for four friar priests is included in the July 2010 issue of Friar News.
Fr. Joe Chinnici, OFM, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving for former provincial minister Fr. Finian McGinn, OFM, and Fathers Larry Dunphy, OFM, Tom Frost, OFM, and Loren Kerkof, OFM, who commemorated 50 years since their priestly ordination.
The most recent issue of St. Barbara Province’s internal publication,WestFriars, featured the lives of two friars who recently died — Fr. Ken Scott, OFM, and Fr. John Peterson, OFM — as well as the province’s two retirement homes in the Holy Land, the May 15 commencement address at Franciscan School of Theology by Fr. Joe Chinnici, OFM, and the Serra Retreat Center in Malibu, Calif., and the departure in June of the novices who went to San Xavier and San Solano Missions.
“We have an administration that is so dedicated to the welfare of the province and to individual friars,” said Fr. Warren Rouse, OFM, in a letter in the July/August 2010 WestFriars. “Think of the time that is involved here. We are indeed grateful for their sacrifices, even when we wonder why certain decisions are made.”