Below are highlights of notable October events that took place around Holy Name Province:
One Year Ago
Oct. 17, 2009 — Roughly 200 friars and visitors gathered at a snow-covered Mt. Irenaeus Franciscan Mountain Retreat to celebrate its 25th anniversary with music, Mass and a buffet-style meal. (Earlier this year, friars and friends gathered at Mt. Irenaeus to celebrate the life of Daniel Hurley, OFM, who died in March 2010 and to conclude the yearlong anniversary commemoration.)
Oct. 24, 2009 — The Province’s first “Encuentro Franciscano,” a celebration of Hispanic culture in Franciscan ministry, was held at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Md. Nearly 600 people from more than a dozen of the Province’s parishes and ministries traveled from near and far to sing, worship and learn together. (A blog called “Encuentro Franciscano,” created in October 2009, provides news and reflections from members of the HNP Hispanic Ministry Committee.)
10 Years Ago
Oct. 7 and 8, 2000 — New additions and buildings were dedicated in Triangle, Va., and Raleigh, N.C., respectively. In Triangle, Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington blessed the addition to the parish center and parochial school at St. Francis. In Raleigh, Bishop Francis Joseph Gossman dedicated St. Francis Parish’s new Franciscan Elementary School. (Earlier this year, three new buildings were dedicated at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Raleigh.)
Oct. 21, 2000 — Ceremonies marked the 10th anniversary of the Franciscan Center in Greensboro, N.C.
15 Years Ago
Oct. 4-8, 1995 — Pope John Paul II visited the United States, participating in celebrations in New Jersey, New York and Maryland.
20 Years Ago
Oct. 1, 1990 — Holy Name Province assumed care of St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church in Hartford, Conn. (On Oct. 9, 2010, the parish, where Thomas Gallagher, OFM, is pastor, celebrated the 20th anniversary of Franciscan presence.)
Oct. 4, 1990 — Neil O’Connell, OFM, was installed as the 18th president of St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y. (Today, Neil serves as campus minister at Manhattan Community College and Herbert H. Lehman College in the Bronx. He is also a member of the Province’s African-American Ministry Committee.)
25 Years Ago
Oct. 20, 1985 — The new Catholic Center at Georgia Tech University was dedicated in Atlanta. (Mario Di Lella, OFM, who began ministry at Georgia Tech in 1970, retired to St. Anthony Friary in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2008)
35 Years Ago
Oct. 7, 1975 — The 100th anniversary of the founding of St. Stephen Friary was observed in Croghan, N.Y. In 1912, the Province moved its philosophy program to the Croghan friary, making the upstate community known to many friars. (In 1989, the Province withdrew from the parish — shown in photo — in Croghan.)
Oct. 21, 1975 — Alcuin Coyle, OFM, was inaugurated as president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. (Alcuin died in December 2008 at the age of 79.)
45 Years Ago
Oct. 4, 1965 — Benedict Taylor, OFM, and then-friar Geoffrey Proud walked the streets of New York armed with transistor radios, a 35mm camera with a telescopic lens and two rolls of ektachrome color film in hopes of spotting Pope Paul VI — the first pontiff to visit the United States. In the Fall 1965 Provincial Annals, Proud wrote, “Ben was uneasy about me walking up Fifth Ave. with a transistor on my ear; I pointed out a couple of nuns doing it to relax his good sense of propriety.” The two settled at 57th Street and Sixth Avenue, where they managed to snap a picture of the back of the holy father’s head. (In April 2008, Holy Name Friars participated in the pastoral visit by Pope Benedict XVI in New York and Washington, D.C.)
— Compiled by Rebecca Doel