Capuchins in the 21st Century

Here is the presentation I made at the meeting of the Conference Presidents a few weeks ago. Google Docs didn't handle the graphics very well so some words are cut off and others overlap.

Some of the slides may not be self-explanatory so here are the instructions for seeing my notes on the slides. First, click on the box to the right of the words 'Slide 1/27' at the bottom of the opening slide. This will open the presentation in a new window. At the bottom of this window, again to the right of the words 'Slide 1/27' there is a drop-down box called 'Actions'. Click on the arrow to see the various actions available and choose 'Display speaker's notes' (or something similar). This should bring up a smaller window with my notes in it. Use the arrows at the bottom left of the slide to move forward or backward through the presentation.

A sign of hope in Pakistan

One of the concrete signs of our global brotherhood is the concern we show for our brothers natural disasters strike or other troubles occur. When the tsunami hit Indonesia years ago, offers of help came from provinces throughout the world. After the earthquake in Aquila, Italy, and after the recent earthquake in Indonesia, many brothers asked how they could help. Given the news of frequent bombings and shootings in Pakistan, I am often asked about the situation of our brothers there. Two weeks ago, I conducted an economic visitation of the Vice Province of Pakistan so I was able to see the situation for myself.

The Vice Province of Pakistan had its beginnings over 150 years ago when the British Army invited Capuchins to serve as military chaplains in India. The original Italian missionaries were soon replaced by friars from France. Later, in the 1880’s, the French Capuchins were replaced by friars from Belgium. Today there are about 40 friars in the Vice Province, of whom three are from Belgium while the rest are Pakistanis. They are involved primarily in parochial ministry, although they also run a few schools.

Although priests and religious have rarely been specifically targeted by extremists in Pakistan, they share the plight of all Pakistanis. A bomb planted by a terrorist group outside a police training center last March blew out the windows and splintered several doors in one of the friaries in Lahore. Beyond the dangers caused by frequent bomb blasts and gun battles between the military and the extremists, the friars share additional difficulties with the rest of the Christian community in the country. Christians account for only 3% of the population in Pakistan, and they are often looked upon as outsiders. Various attempts to “Islamicize” the country have made their situation even more perilous. Officially, Christians (as all minorities) are tolerated and even protected. Clearly, however, minority groups do not enjoy equal rights. The clearest example of this disparity is the country’s blasphemy laws. The effects of these laws was made clear in a recent case.

In one of the villages where the friars minister, a young Christian man befriended a Muslim girl. There was nothing unusual in this since interreligious marriages are not uncommon in Pakistan. At some point, the relationship was broken off, which apparently displeased the parents of the girl. They exacted their revenge by accusing him of blasphemy. The local police arrested the young man, and threw him into a jail cell with a group of Muslim prisoners. These prisoners began to beat the young man mercilessly. He was then taken to a solitary cell, where the police continued to torture him. Eventually, they strangled him to death. According to the official police report, the young man hung himself, but the autopsy clearly showed marks that were inconsistent with hanging. Despite clear evidence of police brutality leading to death, nothing will be done to discipline them. Another false accusation of blasphemy in Gorja, Pakistan, culminated with a mob torching the houses of several Christian families. Such cases are common enough that even some Muslims are calling for the abolition of blasphemy laws.

The unequal treatment of Christians is also seen in employment opportunities. Christians are often trapped in low-paying jobs, with few opportunities for advancement. Christian children are treated with such contempt in the public schools that many will not attend school at all unless there is a Catholic school nearby. In this way, the cycle of poverty is continued.

While the situation may seem bleak, our brothers in Pakistan are working diligently to improve the lives of Christians in the country. One of the brothers works extensively in the area of interreligious dialogue. It is a work that requires great patience since progress comes in small, slow steps. The brothers have also opened many schools, both in the cities and in the villages. Through education, they are slowly improving the lives of the poor and helping to eradicate an extremism that preys on ignorance. Through their work in the parishes, they help the parishioners to strengthen the sense of community and interdependence among the Catholic community. One might say that the primary ministry of the Vice Province is one of providing hope to the people of Pakistan.

Take the St. Francis Pledge

Weekly re:Cap, a bulletin of the Saint Joseph (Calvary) Province in the United States, pointed out the website of The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, where you can take the “St. Francis Pledge” to care for creation and the poor. The website is worth a look, and the initiative is a worthy one. I took the pledge.

Know your SoG's

The vice postulator of the cause for canonization of the Servant of God Thomas Acerbis of Olera, a Capuchin of the Venice Province, recently asked me to assist him in locating an article about the friar written in 1960. Fortunately, the Order's Central Library in Rome had the issue of Round Table of Franciscan Research containing the article so I was able to procur it without much difficulty. Through the semi-miracle of scanners and optical character recognition software, I was able to digitize it. The OCR software, however, insisted on recognizing every fly speck and stray bit of ink as a letter so producing a readable document still took several hours of labor on my part <insert sighing sounds here>.

So as to maximize the return on my efforts, I offer the finished product here for the enjoyment of my readers. Recall that this was written before Vatican Council II so some of the terminology (especially in reference to our separated brethren) and the sentiments expressed can be a bit jarring.

Note that while the author of the article spells Thomas' surname as "Acerbi", nearly everyone else spells it "Acerbis". An Internet search turned up over 9,000 hits on "Tommaso Acerbis", including the official website for his cause for canonization. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little published about him in English.

A Different Kind of Evangelization

Throughout the area of my primary responsibility—North American, Australia and Guam—the main arena of evangelization is the parish. True, the brothers minister in many other ways, including schools, hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters and countless others. The pillars of ministry in each jurisdiction, however, tend to be the parishes. There is a good argument for keeping it this way; parishes tend to be the focus of Catholic life in these areas. They are much more than just a place to attend Mass on Sunday. They serve as places to build community and to provide outlets for service to the wider society. A well-run parish can support and expand a jurisdiction’s ministry beyond what its brothers could accomplish alone.

Assisting Br John Antony with the visitation of the Province of Saint Fidelis in north India at the end of July and the beginning of August, I saw a very different model in action. Saint Fidelis is a very large province begins just to the east of New Delhi and continues beyond the eastern shore of India to include the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Traveling separately, it took John Antony and I ten days to complete the visitation, usually spending no more than one day in each friary and sometimes traveling as many as twelve hours from one friary to the next.

The Capuchin presence in this area of India goes back to at least the early part of the 18th century when the mission was entrusted to the Order by Propaganda Fide. By the mid-twentieth century, Indian laws concerning missionaries made it difficult to continue the mission so most of the parishes and friaries were handed over to local clergy. Indian friars, however, maintained a small presence, and in 1972 the Province of Karnataka-Goa-Maharashtra accepted the territory as its mission. Since then, the jurisdiction has grown into an autonomous province of about 120 friars.

Evangelization in this area of India has always been a difficult proposition. Despite the hard work of friars from France, Italy, Canada, Belgium and the United States over several centuries, Catholics remained a very small minority. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the Indian friars first concentrated their efforts, the largest Capuchin parishes have around 200 families. As a way to expand their evangelical efforts, the friars began opening schools. Today, the Province runs about six schools and is in the process of opening others. The schools are open to all students regardless of religion, and offer education from pre-school through grade 12. Each school has an enrollment of around 3000 students with a waiting list that is often exceeds the number of students. The principal of one school told me that they recently had sixty applications for ten openings. These schools allow the brothers to bring the Gospel to bear on the morals and ethics of their society.

Beyond the evangelical impact of the schools, what I found most amazing were the determination the brothers showed and the sacrifices they made to establish the schools. They often began by teaching students under the trees. Then, when they had collected enough in fees, they built one room for the school. As they collected more, they added additional rooms until the whole school was built. Often, the brothers themselves barely had a roof over their heads until the construction of the school was finished. Br Julian Crasta did much of the planning for the schools and supervised their construction, which saved a great deal of money. Rarely did they seek funding for the schools from external sources. Thanks to careful management, most of the schools are not only self-supporting, but provide support for the Province, subsidize their schools in poorer areas and make seed money available to start new schools.

The brothers are quite proud of their schools, and justifiably so. They are proof of how the Order can evangelize even in difficult situations through creative thinking, a sense of mission and a willingness to sacrifice.

How hot was it?

Guess how hot it is in Rome today:
A. Hot
B. Very hot
C. #!@+&%£ hot

If you guessed "hotter than C", you are correct.

Only a few offices in the Generalate have A/C so most of us have to make do with a fan. I have a nice, black fan that was left by my predecessor in office. It is very nice to look at. It works well, except, that is, when it is hot. A couple of weeks ago on what was the hottest, most humid night of the year so far, I took the fan into my bedroom, plugged it in, turned it on and ... nothing. The extreme heat must have affected my brain because something made me think I could fix it on the spot. Fixing it involved first removing the six small screws holding the fan guard in place. The only screwdrivers I had available were the kind you use for eyeglasses and small appliances, but I was undeterred. For such small screws, they sure were tenacious! By the time I had unscrewed/cursed/yanked (pick one) the sixth one, I was drenched in perspiration. Now all I had to do was unscrew another dilly-dally, take off the whatchamacallit and finally remove the thingamabob. Now the important part—I put my hands on my hips, stared at the pieces and said, "Hmmm". Next, I tapped a few pieces with my finger, then started to put it all back together. When it came time to put the fan guard back on, I could see those six small screws defiantly mocking me so I decided to deal with them the next day. I plugged it in, turned it on, gave the blades a few whirls with my finger (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, BOYS AND GIRLS!) and it finally began to work on its own. It did, however, voice its displeasure about having to work in such miserable conditions by emitting various shrieks and groans throughout the night.

Since that night, the fan has continued to operate admirably. Until last night, the second hottest night of the year. I was awakened several times during the night by its plaintive cries. Tonight promises to be even hotter. Will this be the night of the definitive sciopero?

The Big Apple and Beyond

It has been almost two months since I finished the visitation of the St. Mary's Province (New York/New England) Province, but I am only now getting around to writing about it. I could use the usual excuse of being busy, which would, after all, be partially true. In this case, however, it is probably more true to say that I needed the time to reflect—to step away from the trees in order to see the forest.

The visitation started in White Plains, moved to Patchoque, then Brooklyn, then Manhattan. After visiting the three friaries in Manhattan, I moved slowly northward into upstate New York then through New England until reaching Portland, Maine. From there, I traveled southward again, stopping at the friaries I missed on the northward journey, until arriving back in White Plains. The travel itself was an education for me. I'd been in the St. Mary's Province many times before, but only in New York City or its environs. As such, I associated the Province with New York City and big city ministry. The reality, I learned, is much more multi-faceted. The Province is present not only in the megalopolis of New York, but in the small town of Rutland, Vermont, and even in the beautiful, pastoral setting of Interlaken, New York. Parishes form the cornerstone of the Province's ministry, but this doesn't mean there is no ministerial variety. First of all, each parish has its own character and presents its own challenges. Secondly, the Province's friars are involved in many ministries outside the parish—as hospital chaplains, prison chaplains, campus ministers, adoption agencies, and ministry to immigrants, to name a few.

I do not think I was alone in associating the Province with New York City; about half the world's Capuchins have passed through St. John's Friary in Manhattan at one time or another, and those who haven't visited yet want to New York City may be the most frequented Capuchin pilgrimage site after Rome and Assisi! I was struck during the visitation of the service that the Province provides to the international Order. The Province not only provides hospitality to friars who are visiting or studying in New York, but its provincial offices provides many services for the General Curia, for Capuchin Friars International, and for various provinces in other parts of the world that need a point of reference in the United States. The Province provides important support for Franciscans International. It was a driving force behind the NAPCC's support for our African jurisdictions, and it has continued to support projects in Africa and Latin America. The Province does all this despite having to support two missions of its own: the Vice Province of Marianna Islands-Hawaii and the Custody of Japan.

Another thing that struck me as I traveled around the Province was the positive attitude of the friars. The vast majority of the friars are working hard—even those who have longed surpassed "retirement" age&mash;and they are joyfully trying to live according the form of life they professed. Many of them attributed the positive atmosphere in the Province to the quality and quantity of vocations it has received in recent years. Bro. Tim Jones has done such an excellent job at promoting vocations that some friars openly wondered if he was producing them in a lab in his basement (I call dibs on the movie rights for The Boys from Brooklyn). Seriously, however, Bro. Tim rightly pointed out that vocation promotion cannot be the work of one person, and if the Province has been successful in its promotion it is because of the involvement of all the friars.

The problem with blogging about visitations is knowing where to stop. There were many other revelations for me during my time in the St. Mary's Province, but, like its patron, I will "meditate on them in [my] heart."