The Custody of Nigeria

Construction of St Francis of Assisi Church in Enugu, Nigeria

There is one less item on my "bucket list" now that I have had an opportunity to visit our Capuchin Custody of Nigeria. I was invited here to give a series of seminars to the brothers of the Custody. I spoke to the Custody's twenty-five post-novices last Saturday, and will speak to the perpetually professed brothers this week.

Although there was at least one previous attempt to establish a Capuchin mission in Nigeria, we have had a continuous presence there only since the early 1990's. It was established as a Custody of the Province of Tuscany in 1994. It was the only jurisdiction of the Order established during my nine-month assignment as General Secretary of the Order so the Decree of Establishment bears my signature. Since then I have always harbored a desire to see what my hand hath wrought.

The beginnings of the Custody can, in some sense, be traced back to my home province of Mid-America. In the late 1970's, Clement Emodi was a young Nigerian doing university studies in Omaha, Nebraska. He felt a call to religious life so he applied and was accepted into the 1980-81 novitiate class of the Mid-America Province. Rather than make profession in the Mid-America Province, however, he decided to return to Nigeria and ask the bishop to invite Capuchins to his diocese. His persistence paid off, as the Bishop asked the then-General Minister Br. Flavio Roberto Carraro to open a mission in his Diocese of Onitsha. Clement, who now goes by his given name of Akosa, was the first Nigerian to be professed a Capuchin.

The Custody now has almost sixty temporarily- and perpetually-professed brothers. They have expanded their presence to seven fraternities in several different dioceses. The photograph above was taken at one of their newer fraternities. St Francis of Assisi Friary is their second fraternity in Enugu. 

Christmas Eve in the General Curia

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Christmas 2013

“We therefore celebrate Christmas contemplating Mary and Joseph: Mary, the woman full of grace who had the courage to entrust herself totally to God's word; Joseph, the faithful and just man who preferred to believe in the Lord instead of listening to the voices of doubt and human pride. With them, we walk together towards Bethlehem”.
(Pope Francis, Angelus of 23 December 2013)

To all my fellow travelers on the road to Bethlehem, I wish you a blessed Christmas.

The Wraps Are (partially) Off

Rooftop view of the Generalate's courtyard

It is a good sign when the scaffolding starts to come down! This photograph of the General Curia in Via Piemonte was taken at the end of November. Note the new windows and shutters on the top floor. By the time you read this, most of the windows on the first floor (for American readers, that would be the second floor) will also be installed. Except for the fixtures, the bulk of the plumbing and electrical work is done. The tile floors have been laid everywhere except the ground floor and the basement. In other words, the place is beginning to look habitable again.

Currently, most of the work is concentrated on the ground floor and basement, where there is still much work to do. Even there, however, things are beginning to take shape. It is not unusual these days to have around 80 workers on site who, between the main contractors and the subcontractors, might be working for a dozen different companies. As you can imagine, it takes a great amount of coordination just to keep the workers from tripping over themselves. Thankfully, we have a very attentive and competent project manager, not to mention a very serious, exacting manager of safety.

During the course of the work, it was discovered that one of our two connections to the city sewer had collapsed at some time in the past. Repairs can only be started once all the scaffolding has been removed from that area. It is difficult to estimate how much time it will take to repair the line, but the contractor hopes they can begin the work in early 2014.

We are still hopeful that we can begin moving back to Via Piemonte in late June or early July 2014.

NAPCC meeting

The Provincial Ministers and Provincial Vicars of the North American-Pacific Capuchin Conference met for its semiannual meeting from October 17 to October 19 at the Franciscan Retreat Centre in Mono Mills, Ontario, Canada. The hospitality of the Friars Minor who manage the centre, combined with the serenity and beauty of the Ontario countryside contributed to making the meeting both productive and enjoyable.

It has become normal for the Conferences two interprovincial formation programs—the novitiate and the two-month Interprovincial Postulancy Program—to occupy a large part of the agenda, and this time was no exception. It was very clear from the discussions that the provincial councils of all the Conference's jurisdictions take their responsibility for the formation of their friars very seriously.

Here are a few of the items I found most interesting.

• There is a new website under development that will be a central repository for documents that could be of use to all the Conference's formation directors. Since many potential vocation contacts happen upon this site as well, the home page will contain vocational material and contact information for all the Conference's jurisdictions.
• We discussed ways to increase the Capuchin "footprint" in North America through projects of international fraternal collaboration. A committee was formed to develop this further.
• The Conference's directors of formation held a conversation about ways to promote the Franciscan intellectual tradition through courses on Franciscan philosophers and theologians. Given the limited number of students that take advantage of such specialized courses, it has become difficult to maintain Franciscan institutes of higher learning in the Anglophone world. Offering these courses online, however, could be a viable solution.
• There was a substantial discussion around the Interprovincial Postulancy Program (IPP). While some question whether the two months used by the IPP couldn't be more profitably spent in the regular postulancy programs, others strongly support the program. Based on the experience of the NAPCC, in fact, other parts of the world that have a common novitiate for several provinces are considering the institution of an IPP. 

In the land of "Karibu"

If you spend any time at all in Tanzania and never learn the word "Karibu", it probably means you are dead. Karibu, which is Swahili for "welcome", is the first word you hear as your plane is landing, the first word you see when stepping into the airport, and probably the most commonly used word in the Swahili language. You hear it dozens of times every day.

I certainly felt most welcomed when I attended a conference for the Capuchin lay brothers of Tanzania held from Tuesday, July 9 until Friday, July 12, 2013 at the Order's beautiful Mbagala Spiritual Centre just outside Dar es Salaam. The conference was an opportunity for the brothers to discuss their life, activities, and roles within the Province, the Order and the local church.

Br Wolfgang addresses the brothers

The Capuchin Province of Tanzania has a unique history, which made this opportunity especially interesting for me. When the Province of Switzerland founded the Tanzanian mission in the early 1920's, the Apostolic Vicar, who was a Capuchin, would not allow the Capuchins to ordain any of the local vocations since he thought it would be detrimental to the growth of the local secular clergy. As a result, the Province, especially in its early years, had a high percentage of lay brothers. Even today, despite the fact that the Province has been ordaining local vocations at least since the 1960's, almost half of the perpetually professed members of the Province are lay friars. In the Capuchin Order as a whole, lay brothers make up about 20% of the perpetually professed friars. One of the concerns voiced during the workshop was their dwindling number. I pointed out to them that there were more lay brothers in the room than there were friars in my province so it was strange for me to hear them talk about their small numbers.

With Br John Sulle, one of my able interpreters

Despite its unique culture and history, the lay brothers in Tanzania have many of the same concerns as in other parts of the world. Besides their concern for the decreasing number of candidates who choose the lay expression of our vocation and the numbers that have left the Order, the brothers also discussed issues of work and formation. We were blessed by the presence of our brother Archbishop Thaddeus Ruwa'ichi on the first evening of the conference. His presentation laid the foundation for the rest of the week by situating it within the context of our religious life, our Franciscan vocation and the current situation of the world. Wolfgang Pisa, Provincial Minister of Tanzania, was present during the whole week and spoke on Wednesday morning about the need to safeguard our charism. In my presentation, I attempted to present a picture of the global situation of lay brothers in the Order. Five of the brothers in attendance gave presentations on topics of the apostolate and witness of the brothers, the division of responsibilities in the Province, and the future outlook.

It was an enjoyable week, but most of all a productive one. I hope one day to hear again the words, "Karibu in Tanzania!"

New Ministers Meet to Learn

A new minister enlarging his horizons

We are at the midway point of the annual New Ministers Meeting, at which the provincial ministers, vice provincial ministers and custodes elected during the past year are presented with information that will help them carry out their service of authority. There are thirty-two ministers participating in this year's meeting; this is larger than usual since the last meeting was held in January 2012. As usual, the meeting is being held in the Order's formation center in Frascati. So far the discussions have been lively and positive.