This Month in Provincial History

HNP Communications Features

Notable events for the month of February include:

One Year Ago
Feb. 15, 2017 — HNP Today readers were invited to share thoughts regarding the content and style of the Province’s newsletter. Results were gathered and published by the HNP Communications Office last summer.

Feb. 18, 2017 — Two friars – Mario Gómez-Tejerina, OFM, and Edgardo Jara-Araya, OFM – were ordained to the priesthood at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Md. This year, John Aherne, OFM, will be ordained at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City. Roberto González, OFM, archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will celebrate the 11 a.m. Mass on June 23.

Feb. 20 – 22, 2017 — The secretaries for formation and studies from the seven OFM provinces in the United States gathered at Holy Name College in Silver Spring to discern the first Interprovincial Postulancy Formation Team. The year before, the U.S. provincial ministers approved the program to begin with the 2017-18 class of postulants.

Five Years Ago
Feb. 8, 2013 — Then-Provincial Minister John O’Connor, OFM, blessed and dedicated a new chapel at St. Anthony Friary in St. Petersburg, Fla. Residents of the retirement friary had been enjoying other recent upgrades to the building, including the addition of exercise equipment.

10 Years Ago
Feb. 6, 2008 — Holy Name Province announced it was preparing to withdraw from two parishes in the metropolitan New York area: Our Lady of the Holy Angels in Little Falls, N.J., and Holy Cross in the Bronx.

Feb. 4 -11, 2008 — Michael Jones, OFM, and members of St. Patrick-St. Anthony Parish in Hartford, Conn., traveled to Haiti. Working through a program developed by the Diocese of Norwich, Conn., St. Patrick-St. Anthony has worked with St. Genevieve Parish in Zoranje, Haiti, since 2004. This year, six parishioners visited the sister parish from Jan. 25 to 30.

February 2008 — The Province’s Franciscan Missionary Union (FMU) and St. Anthony’s Guild produced a pocket-sized devotional booklet, Way of the Cross, that included words of St. Francis of Assisi, liturgical prayers, and brief meditations by Russell Becker, OFM, then-director of the FMU. This year, with Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day, the HNP Development Office is inviting people to celebrate in “Purple Valentine’s Day” by giving a special card to a loved one. Proceeds from each Purple Valentine card support Holy Name Province’s ministries, which feed, clothe and shelter more than two million children, women, and men each year.

15 Years Ago
Feb. 3, 2003 — The 40th anniversary of the Good Word Ministry — a phone service that offered a daily-recorded inspirational message established by Philip Lavere, OFM, at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City — was celebrated. Today, the ministry continues at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston and can be heard by calling 617-542-0205.

25 Years Ago
Feb. 28, 1993 — Holy Name Province’s 50-year tenure of service in the Diocese of Savannah ended with Mass at Our Divine Savior Church in Tifton, Ga. In 2015, the Province assumed the administration of St. Peter Claver Parish in Macon, returning to ministerial presence in the Diocese of Savannah. In addition to administering the parish and working at its affiliated elementary school, the friars have been involved with Mount de Sales Academy, a college preparatory school founded by the Sisters of Mercy, and Daybreak ministries, a program for the homeless.

55 Years Ago
Feb. 10-16, 1963 — St. Bonaventure University held a centennial celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. A special Solemn Mass — celebrated by Roy Gasnick, OFM, and assisted by Gervase White, OFM, Winfrid Ryan, OFM, and Jerome Kelly, OFM — was offered in honor of St. Benedict the Moor. An interfaith panel on the “Morality of Discrimination” included a reflection from Victor Elmer, OFM, then-professor of sociology at St. Bonaventure. Fidelis O’Rourke, OFM, took part in a panel discussion titled “The Ghetto Game,” that addressed discrimination in housing.

— Compiled by Johann Cuervo

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