Happy Easter 2010

Why do you look for the living among the dead. He is not here. He is risen!".

May Easter be for each of you readers a time of new hope and peace.


I am in California as I write, out to celebrate with the friars of the Western American Province one hundred years since the first Irish Capuchins came over. The re-constituted Irish Province was only in existence for some 26 years when the bishop of Baker Diocese invited the Irish friars to come to help with the evangelization of the area. And they came. First came two friars, and stories abound of the missionary treks of one of them, Br. Luke Sheehan, on horseback, sharing food and a blanket with a lonesome but hospitable cowboy, meeting Ku Klux Klan opposition on the way, but persevering despite the odds.  Two friaries were founded in 1910 in Hermiston and Bend in Oregon.
The area became a full-fledged Province of the Order in 1979 when Brendan O'Mahony was Provincial Minister in Ireland.  Our General Minister will be arriving for the occasion, with celebrations in 5 venues: Watts (South Los Angeles), St Francis High School in Pasadena, the Old Mission in Santa Ynez and San Lorenzo, and finally in the parish in Burlingame. A good fraternal celebration is assured!

Saint Patrick's Day

The world - or some of it, at least - goes green for the 17th of March. That is not, however, true of Rome except for the Irish community living here.  I did not manage to connect with them this year as we had a meeting of the General Definitory this week, and noblesse oblige, as we say in Irish! Beannachtai na Feile libh go leir!

After the return from India we went straight into a meeting of the Constitutions' Commission, to work on a text for Chapters 7 and 9 - which we managed to do. It is now in the hands of the translators, and no doubt will soon see the light of day in seven languages. The work is tedious and time-consuming but, hopefully, worthwhile although some doubtless well-meaning friars tell us that the commission should be prepared for a negative reaction fromt he Order as a whole. No sign of any major negative tsunami so far. So we continue the work we were asked to do by the General Chapter.
That meeting was followed by a visitation of the two German provinces, which are preparing to unite in May of this year.  Br. Ephrem Bucher of the Swiss province had agreed to help, and Charles Serignat, our excellent linguist, came with me to uphold my drooping German!  Snow, freezing temperatures but warm welcome awaited us everywhere.  With the rising age-average and few vocations most of the friars see the forthcoming unification as inevitable, It has been well prepared over a number of years, and the hope is that it will give some new energy to a part of the world where the Capuchin presence has a very long and rich history. The was much beer, herring salad and sausage, much to the delgiht of Charles, but he remains committed to his first love, i.e. Apfelsaft, or apple-juice for the uninitiated!

Back from Bangalore

At the end of January I left Rome with John Antony for visitation in Karnataka, South West India. I had been looking forward to this visitation as I am always happy to be among the Indian people. I find them a very welcoming and courteous race. And I love Indian food!
I was not disappointed. The Capuchins in Karnataka are a great group of friars. They have many vocations: young, energetic and seriously searching young men, eager to learn about Francis and the Capuchins, eager too to give themselves to the Lord in the Order. Obviously all of them will not remain, but the experience of spending some years in formation houses of the Order will be of certain benefit to them in the years ahead.
The economy in India is booming, but, as in many other places, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Bangalore had become one of the world's centres for IT, literacy rates are high but there are still many visible signs of poverty, neglect and abandonment. The traffic is horrrendous. Going for a walk in the evening meant stepping out into blue air, so great was the volume of traffic and the noxious emissions, especially from the autorickshaws.

It's almost Christmas again

So Season's Greetings to everybody. I am in Malta at present, just coming to the end of two weeks of Visitation. Like other Capuchin provinces of Western Europe,
Malta is experiencing a downturn in vocations which, together with the ageing process, is causing them to review their ministerial commitments - which is always a painful process.
This morning I went to visit an open centre for refugees a few miles outside Valetta. It was set up by a Capuchin friar, the late Br. Crispin Tabone, who with sound Capuchin judgment saw the growing problem of refugees in Malta and decided to do something about it. He got an old trade school from the Government and it now houses 700 men, almost all of them from sub-Saharan ?Africa. We got a guided tour from the Manager, Ahmed, himself an Evangelical Pastor. As well as sleeping accommodation, it has three restaurants - Somalian, Sudanese, Eritrean - run by the men themselves, with shops, games centre, training centre (for IT and English classes) and a football pitch. Great work. At weekends, the number swells to about 1,500.
The year has been a busy one, with visitations, meetings with the conferences, definitory meetings, commission metings etc. To all I met during the year, and to all who read the Capuchin blogs: Happy Christmas and blessings for 2010. Nollaig shona dibh!

Sorry it's been so long

ROME
I wrote an update the other evening and lost in in trying to publish it! Needless to say, IT is not my forte!
The meeting of the Constitutions' Commission has just finished and a communique will appear shortly. It was during the previous meeting of the same commission that I wrote my last blog, so in a sense we have come full circle!
After holidays in August I went to Algeria to visit the French friars there. Because of circumstances their presence there is a very discreet one, but they have been given permission to act as chaplains to the Catholic students from sub-Saharan Africa who attend the university in Tiaret, the city where the fraternity is situated.

Visitation of the French province in October was an opportunity to revisit Strasbourg, where I had studied many years ago, and also to visit friaries I had never seen before. There are still over two hundred friars in the provinces, but more than one hundred are over eighty years old. But there is still plenty of energy, as witnessed by the new presence in Algeria (which began two years ago), and the preparations for a new multi-cultural fraternity in a poor area in the Paris region. Preparations are underway for the chapter in February 2009.

November saw the entire definitory headed for Dar es Salaam to meet the African conferences, and then on to Bangalore to meet the Indian conference. From there we headed to Penang in Malaysia to meet the Asia-Pacific conference. Each of the visit was very short but gave us an opportunity to have some insights into the the positive and negative sides of Capuchin living in these areas.
Coming from the ageing region of Europe, for me it was very invigorating to see so many young friars, especially in Africa and India. Also fascinating was to see first hand the variety of ways in which the Capuchin charism has been incarnated, while all the time retaining the simplicity and fraternal spirit which characterised our family. It was a great trip, tiring but satisfying, which hopefully has helped to create a new sense of unity and purpose in the wider Order.
Happy Christmas to one and all. Nollaig fe shean is fe mhaise dibh go leir, as we say in Gaelic!

Recent travels

BLOIS : The friars of the Province of France met for their Chapter of Mats at the sanctuary of Notre Dame de la Trinite in the Loire-valley town of Blois from the 9th to the 13th of June. The main item on the agenda was the preparation of the ordinary Provincial Chapter which is due to take place next February. The chapter closed with the celebration of the Perpetual Profession of Br. Jean-Louis. Photo above shows part of the group on a visit to the Benedictine abbey of Saint Benoit -sur-Loire, where the body of Saint Benedict is in the crypt.

BEIRUT was the setting for the closing session of the Chapter of the Vice-Province of the Near East from the 16th to the 18th of June. The main items for discussion were the re-organisation of the friars' presence in Beirut itself, in the rest of Lebanon and in Syria, as well as a proposed statute for the schools in the care of the friars. The cease-fire was just one month old, and fervent prayers were offered that it would hold. The city and the country were en fete for the beatification of the Capuchin friar Br. James of Ghazir which took place in the Square of the Martyrs the Sunday after the Chapter.

I went back to Rome for the week of the Definitory meeting which began on 23rd June. The previous meeting had finished before Palm Sunday so a long time had elapsed. The agenda was packed but we managed to get through all the important points. Then I headed for the Province of Eastern Canada which covers all of the French-speaking part of Canada.

LAC BOUCHETTE, about 250 km north of Quebec city, was the beautiful setting for the canonical chapter of the Province (30th June to 4th July). We had rain, it was not warm and the black stinging flies were buzzing. But none of this prevented the chapter from being a great fraternal exercise at which the friars tried to discern how to use their diminishing resources for the good of the Church in that part of the world. A great source of hope and encouragement for them is the presence of a number of friars from the Province of Saint Francis, Kerala in India (pictured above). The was a very significant moment at the chapter when one of the Indian friars (Br. Manual 2nd from right in photo) was elected one of the definitors.

I am now back in Rome once again where, this morning (14th July), we began the meeting of the Commission for the Constitutions. It looks as though we have three weeks hard work ahead of us in the heat of the Roman July. Orate pro nobis!

Update

I have been heartened recently by a number of negative remarks I received about this blog and about how dilatory I am in keeping it up to date. It showed me at least that three people are reading it!
Since the defintiory meeting in March, I have had a failed trip to Algeria (could not get a visa), followed by a meeting of CENOC in my home town of Dublin. It was a great occasion, hardworking but relaxed, with a nice trip around Dublin as well as a visit to the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless People and to the Overseas Mission heritage centre in Church Street. A festive meal that evening, hosted by the Provincial Minister, Br. Terence, brought the meeting to a close.
March 30th saw me heading for Quebec, for the first time to the Capuchins in that part of the world. Evidence of winter was still around, low temperatures with the odd snow shower. It was a great trip, meant to help me to understand some of the issues which will surface at the Provincial Chapter in Late June. I look forward to going back to meet the friars again - and to higher temperatures!!

On 12 May I arrived back in Europe, to Salzburg in Austria, for the business chapter of the new province of Austria which was created just a year ago by joining the Provine of Vienna and the province of North Tyrol. Much progress has been made in the past year, with a great spirit of unity and fraternity among the friars who gathered in the Pallottinerhaus overlooking the beautiful city of Mozart. Work, weather, food , fraternity - all 10 out of 10.

From Austria I went to the chapter in Holland, which began on Monday 19th of May. Twenty friars gathered in a former Capuchin theologate in the south of the country to talk about Capuchin life in that part of Europe and to elect new ministers. Discussions were serious but serene, and a new provincial team was elected this morning headed by the provincial minister Br. Piet Hein van der Veer.

Next week I will go to Great Britain to conduct a pastoral visitation of the province. I look forward to meeting the friars there.