jubilee

New Friary Construction in Northern Uganda

The foundations of a new Franciscan friary in Gulu, Uganda have been laid, paving the way for a larger community of friars to minister in the missionary outpost of the Franciscan Friars Conventual.

“Our mission in Gulu is being built from scratch,” Friar Józef Matuła, OFM Conv. said. “We look forward to offering opportunities for pastoral development, reaching more people in our area, and allowing the mission to grow not only through buildings and infrastructure, but above all, spiritually.”

Friar Józef arrived in Gulu (in the northern region of Uganda) in April 2025. He is helping oversee the construction of the new friary in Gulu, though friars have been living and ministering in southern areas of Uganda for decades.

“We are grateful to see that our mission is growing and brings many wonderful fruits,” Friar Józef said. “Our prayerful presence with all people, our sisters and brothers in our mission, all pastoral and sacramental ministry, catechism and catholic formation, strengthening the faith, raising and discerning new vocations brings so much joy to our missionary life!”

A New Marytown

On an area of about 40 acres in Gulu, tall grasses have been cleared, a deep well dug, and construction begun to open the new site, which was inspired by St. Maximillian Kolbe, OFM Conv.

A saint with a deep devotion to Mary whom he called the “Immaculata,” St. Maximillian Kolbe began the Militia of the Immaculata and envisioned a world where “Marytowns” continued to spread devotion to Jesus through Mary. Franciscans have founded these communities committed to Mary in Poland (Niepokalanow nearby Warsaw), Nagasaki, Japan, and in Libertyville, IL (near Chicago).

Friar Józef envisions the next Franciscan epicenter of Marian devotion in Gulu.

“Saint Maximilian with his great faith and heart wanted also to come to Africa, but because of his sickly health condition and the Second World War made it never happen,” Friar Józef said. “We give thanks to God, that now after many years the dream and prayers of Saint Maximilian, his inspiration brought many brothers Franciscans to this continent and now we are serving in many African countries!”

Hope for the Future

Friar Józef describes Gulu as warm and dry, as compared to Kampala on Lake Victoria in the South, but a rainy season contributes to a lush and colorful landscape. He said most people rely on farming and cattle raising to make a living.

“Every day on such a mission is filled with various organizational and material responsibilities, but we also strive to ensure that this mission grows spiritually and brings blessed fruit to this local Church and everyone we meet here,” he said.

While work is underway on the new friary, the mission friars also dream of building a large Church in the region.

Friar Józef added that through their mission work in Uganda, they have come to see a great devotion to Mary among the people. Especially in a country still recovering from decades of civil war (ended 2008), a center of Marian devotion would be a welcome blessing and promote further healing and reconciliation.

“A Church dedicated to Marian spirituality can bring a very positive, blessed influence and impact on people here and their families,” Friar Józef said.

Donations to the Companions of St. Anthony assist with mission projects in Uganda, through the Franciscan Mission Association.

UNC Chapel Hill Campus Ministry Thrives

“If you build it, they will come.”

Or, in the case of the Newman Catholic Community at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill, if you renovate, even more will come.

When faced with needed improvements to campus ministry infrastructure, Newman’s Pastor and Director of Campus Ministry, Friar Tim Kulbicki, OFM Conv., knew starting a more than $1 million project was a leap of faith.

“God [has] rewarded us with both burgeoning numbers and generous benefactors who often took the initiative in suggesting and funding further projects,” Friar Tim said. “We are now positioned to better minister to both larger numbers of students and increasing involvement in the parish. God bless this community of faith for its hope in the future.”

Phase II of these capital improvements was completed in September – the occasion marked by a rededication ceremony for the main gathering spaces of the Activity Center. The center is now more accessible to students and parishioners with mobility challenges, with ADA compliant facilities and gathering spaces that can more safely and easily accommodate wheelchairs. Additionally, the sound system and electrical capacity of the indoor and outdoor gathering spaces were significantly upgraded.

“This ministry is growing, and these updates will bring the community together even more,” Friar Michael Heine, OFM Conv., said. “We’re blessed to share our Franciscan charism with all who visit there.”

Friar Michael serves as Minister Provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province, a branch of the Franciscan Order that ministers in 19 (arch)dioceses of the United States. Friars live and minister in Chapel Hill and the Newman Catholic Community at UNC. Contributions from the Companions of St. Anthony multiply the generosity of the local community in helping this campus ministry to thrive.

“The local parishioners are very dedicated to the students, and the Catholic students reap the benefits of the local community invested in their faith,” Friar Michael said.

The final stage of the renovation project includes replacing the chairs in the Church with pews. These pews are set to be installed in Spring 2026 and the seating capacity in the Church will increase from 315 to 350.

Ken Reeb, Newman’s Finance Council Chair, speaks at rededication ceremony on September 28.

Today’s Invitation from the Canticle of Sir Brother Sun

Reflection by Br. Cristofer Fernandez, OFM Conv.

This year, the Franciscan family and the wider Church family commemorates a triple anniversary—the Jubilee Year of Hope, the 10th Anniversary of Laudato Si’, and the 800th Anniversary of the Canticle of the Creatures. Let’s consider the depth of our foundational Franciscan hymnology – St. Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures – in relation to these other celebrations of 2025 and beyond.

Understanding the Medieval Backdrop of the Canticle

Firstly, most people note how the Canticle identifies Creation as kin, not as object. It is sung praise from the perspective of a man who was an aficionado of knightly chivalry. It’s not a utilitarian inventory of God’s creatures but rather a hymn of praise to God through all creatures and a warning to humanity to live in right relationship with all, offering in a literal sense, orthodoxy or “right praise.”  For Francis, “sister mother earth” was an allusion to a sacred image of the whole community of Creation. His calling non-human creatures sister or brother is a form of spiritual deference, resonant of a courtly sense of family. And this really troubled the early friars of the order. They were baffled by Francis’ Creation mysticism, because never before had a saint related to other creatures as he did. They must have thought he was truly a weirdo! Saints of great virtue had other animals serve and obey them, but not quite in the same miraculous virtue as Francis who not only had an affection for other creatures, but they too reciprocated with loving tenderness. His was a mysticism of ‘true materiality.’ From the warm & fuzzy to the cold & wet, the brothers were existentially challenged by the kinship of St. Francis with the natural world.

A Song of Hope during a Jubilee Year

Important for us to appreciate today is that this as a song of hope, born not in ease but burst out of Francis’ hardship with sickness and nearing death—discovering hope in suffering. In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (NABRE 5:3-5), we are exhorted to “boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.” In Pope Francis’ opening bull for the Jubilee year (Spes non confundit/Hope does not disappoint) we find three echoes from Francis’ Canticle that also remind us of the encyclical teachings of Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home:

  1. Endurance or spiritual resilience in the rhythms of life – Pope Francis laments our loss of patience in the ecology of daily life, our rushing past nature’s rhythms and our brushing past one another in our capitalistic penchant for productivity or at times with our inflated craving for instant gratification. He calls patience a “daughter of hope” in his invitation to reflect on Creation’s tempo and tenor. Francis’ vision of Creation as family resonates with the Pope’s critique of speed, exploitation, and disregard for natural rhythms. St. Francis exemplifies patient endurance of life’s ebbs and flows. Whether attending to the needs of Brothers in community, helping with chores and gardening, attending to and accepting his declining health, or paying attention to Brother Sun’s rising and setting, Sister Moon’s calm, and the seasons’ flow, we can learn from his life of intentional and sacred pauses for prayer, humble observation, and creative engagement.
  2. Faith hallmarked by the daily pilgrimage of encounter– When Pope Francis opened the Jubilee Year he described it as a collective pilgrimage of hope we embark on as Church, using the active language of encounter: opening doors, reconciling with others, venturing out and leaving comfort— all bearing Franciscan overtones. St. Francis’ goal was to walk as pilgrim and stranger all his religious life, opening doors of peace and solidarity with lepers, with the Sultan, and with non-human creatures.
  3. Justice as the exercise of hope – Pope Francis names addressing impoverishment and hunger, ecological debt and debt forgiveness generally. St. Francis saw evangelical poverty not as curse but as a virtue relational solidarity. Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi both root hope in justice for the least and the land. A posture of humility before all Creation and our shared common home can allow the Spirit to convict us upon learning about environmental and social injustices and help us reflect in our hearts why working towards peacemaking and the renewal of social friendship, universal fraternity, and the care for Creation is not peripheral but intimately tied to Gospel hope. As social psychology suggests, hope is a function of struggle. Where am I in the struggles of my community and local ecosystem? Am I even in the struggle for the common good?

Building on his predecessor, Pope Leo XIV elaborates in his message for this year’s Season of Creation and the 10th Annual Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation that we’re called to sow Seeds of Peace and Hope in our lives as Catholic Christians. Like seeds, hope begins small and hidden, needing to be nurtured with patience. Pope Leo reminds us that Creation is the garden entrusted to us “to till and to keep” (Gen 2:15). St. Francis lived as cultivator of peace, tending relationships with all beings. The Franciscan cord of integral ecology teaches us that caring for Creation and justice for the poor is inseparable: peace comes when we heal both soil and society. The seeds we plant in our lives—acts of (social/ecological) care, kindness, reconciliation—grow into a peace that is larger than us.

Singing in the right key

In the Canticle, Francis praises even “Sister Death” — showing hope that transcends fear of mortality. Spes non confundit echoes that hope is purified by suffering. The Canticle of Brother Sun is cosmic and universal, reflecting a relational paradigm beyond us in the cosmos and heavens and including us in the sub-lunar dimensions of Creation. Both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV extend the Franciscan vision—ecological care, social justice, debt relief, and peacemaking— suggesting that hope is not just for “me” but for the whole Creation. This Jubilee year of triple anniversaries invites us to live Francis’ Canticle: to let hope sing by our lives, to sow seeds of peace on the pilgrimage of life and walk as strangers no longer.

So, whether we’re planting literal seeds (i.e. gardens, trees, acts of environmental restoration), planting relational seeds (i.e. forgiveness, reconciliation, works of mercy), or planting communal seeds (i.e. advocating for justice, caring for the poor, protecting Sister Mother Earth), we can all play our part in the choir of Creation. The world we are “remaking” and repairing must honor the sacred tension, the sacred question (who do you say that I am) constantly renewed by the Creator Spirit that holds the chords of existence taut by God’s dynamic love—the grey dynamism between divine justice and merciful love—on which the song of Creation hinges, the hidden center of the canticle of life where her musical chords reverberate the ode of perfect joy. The perfect joy experienced by God’s fool, Francis of Assisi, in his exclaiming that “Love is not loved,” in bleating “with tenderness at Greccio’s crib,” in revelry considered “inappropriate” by his confreres, in the animals that revered him, in his composing a mystical Canticle of Brother Sun in the throes of pain, in asking for almond cookies in his last illness, in the laughter and tears that Francis saw as “equally valid functions of the love that flooded his heart” (cf. Mother Mary Frances, PCC). May we walk as pilgrims of hope, singing with Brother Sun and Sister Moon, sowing seeds of peace and hope in God’s garden of Creation.

Br. Cristofer Fernandez serves as co-director of Assumption Food Pantry & Soup Kitchen, Franciscan Northside Ministries in Syracuse, NY and is an adjunct professor of Religion & Ecology, Religious Studies Department at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.

Pilgrimages of Hope to Continue After Jubilee

What began has a Jubilee Year of Hope program at the Shrine of St. Anthony will become a regular offering at the Ellicott City, MD site.

The Shrine offered four Franciscan Pilgrimages of Hope in 2025, each program offering an opportunity for an extended tour of the Shrine, time for Confession and Mass, and an afternoon activity related to the day’s theme.

“These pilgrimages of hope have had a wonderful response and have revealed a true hunger in the people of our local community,” said Friar Gary Johnson, OFM Conv. “By coming to our Shrine during the Jubilee of Hope people are honoring the necessity not only to think holy thoughts but to come to a holy location, to literally walk the way of holiness at our Shrine and campus.”

The Shrine’s resident tour guide, Ray Glennon, OFS, designed and implemented Franciscan Pilgrimages of Hope at the Shrine in response to +Pope Francis’s declaration of 2025 as the Jubilee Year of Hope.

More than 40 pilgrims attended each, with the most popular event in August. More than 100 pilgrims visited the Shrine over two days in which the pilgrimage of hope was offered. The theme of that tour was the life and ministry of St. Maximillian Kolbe, OFM Conv. (Feast Day of August 14). The Shrine of St. Anthony has a relic of St. Maximillian Kolbe and an open-air shrine to the Franciscan saint.

Pilgrimages of Hope for 2026 have already been scheduled. Participation is capped at 50 pilgrims for each event. Interested pilgrims can register on the Shrine website.

  • A Light in the Dark
    • Saturday, March 28, 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
    • Theme: St. Clare of Assisi
  • Finding Hope That’s Been Lost
    • Saturday, June 6, 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. OR Tuesday, June 9, 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
    • Theme: St. Anthony of Padua
  • Hope From Out Mother
    • Saturday, August 15, 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. *There will be a Mass for the Assumption at 12 p.m.
    • Theme: St. Maximillian Kolbe
  • Rebuild My Church
    • Saturday, October 3, 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
    • Theme: San Damiano Cross and St. Francis’s Call

The Shrine of St. Anthony welcomes thousands of visitors every year and is a place where pilgrims can find peace and healing. The Shrine is also home to the most significant relic of St. Anthony of Padua in North America. Every Tuesday, Daily Mass attendees receive a special blessing with the relic from the presiding friar.

To schedule your visit to the Shrine, please visit here.

Answering the Call

Friar Franck-Lino Sokpolie, OFM Conv., sent inquiries to two religious orders when he was discerning his call to religious life with the idea that he would trust whoever called him back first. A friar from the Shrine of St. Anthony was the first to call, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I had no anxiety about ordination,” Fr. Franck-Lino said. “I worked hard, I took the classes, and I challenged myself. I’ve done so many things so I could be fully prepared for this ministry.”

Friar Franck-Lino was ordained to the priesthood exactly 12 years to the day after he first entered the community of Franciscan Friars Conventual. Setting the ordination date for July 19, 2025 felt like a divine providence moment, according to the new priest.

Prior to ordination, Fr. Franck-Lino completed a Master of Divinity at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio. He professed solemn vows with the Franciscan Friars Conventual in 2021 and was ordained a deacon in April 2024.

“People have seen my habit and they’ve called me ‘Father’ already, but ordination brings a spiritual change,” he said. “I’m looking forward to interacting with people in a whole new way – as a spiritual father in the Confessional and in a pastoral setting.” He added he will embrace an open-door policy modeled for him by a pastor in Atlanta. Parishioners seeking help will always be able to find it because the door will (literally) always be open.

Fr. Franck-Lino was born in Togo, West Africa and raised in Europe. About 20 years ago, his family moved to Richmond, Virginia where he first started to feel a call to religious life, particularly as a Franciscan.

“I’m a Franciscan first and a priest second,” he said. “I’m embracing the integration of my Franciscan spirituality and my priesthood.”

Reflecting on 25 Years in Ministry

Fr. Michael Lasky, OFM Conv. still remembers the pewter whale.

As a student at Baltimore’s Archbishop Curley High School, Lasky heard his principal explain that the whale reminded him of Jonah — how God sometimes redirects us toward the shore where we’re truly meant to serve. A similar whale, given to Fr. Michael as a gift at his first profession, sits on his desk today, not in Baltimore, but in Rome, where he now serves as the Franciscans’ global General Delegate for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation.

On May 20, 2025, Fr. Michael joined four of his closest brothers — Fr. Gary Johnson, OFM Conv., Fr. Pedro de Oliveira, OFM Conv., Fr. Robert Benko, OFM Conv. and Fr. Vincent Rubino, OFM Conv. — to celebrate their Silver Jubilee as Conventual Franciscan priests, each having been ordained together 25 years ago.

Fr. Pedro, raised in the Azores and later Fall River, Mass., described his journey as “a sublime mission” that has taken him across languages and continents.

“We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs,” he reflected, quoting Archbishop Oscar Romero. “The kingdom always lies beyond us.”

Fr. Gary Johnson, now Vicar Provincial and Director of the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City, recalled a confessional conversation that sparked his call. “Jesus has found ways to confirm I have been listening and responding to his call,” he said.

Together, the five friars have served in parishes, missions, formation houses, shrines, and international justice ministries. But their friendship and shared vocation remain the constant.

Their lives, like Fr. Michael’s pewter whale, are signs of faith—of listening, letting go, and allowing God to guide them to shores they never imagined.

Breaking the Poverty Chain

In a coastal region of southern Ghana, six women are nearing the end of professional training and educational programs funded by the first of what is hoped to be many rounds of available scholarships for women in the region. Among them are a physician’s assistant, an engineering student, and the only female architect to come from Elmina, Ghana.

“They are trailblazers,” Fr. Joseph Blay, OFM Conv, said of the students. “They are working to serve their community while seeing the value in helping others in the transformation of society.”

Fr. Joe, a native of Ghana, manages the scholarship funds for six women in the Southeastern region of the country thanks to donations provided through the Franciscan Mission Association (FMA), a ministry of the Franciscan Friars Conventual of the Our Lady of the Angels Province. The six scholarships – three full and three partial – funding education programs for women in Southeastern Ghana, were established thanks to $15,000 in gifts in 2020.

“The intention of this program is to focus on women because when you educate women, you educate their whole family,” Fr. Joe said. “The girls know the value of an education and then can support the education of their children. This is how we break the poverty chain.”

All the women on scholarship today are studying in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related fields. The scholarships cover tuition and fees for students who otherwise would not have been able to afford their education, Fr. Joe said, with sometimes funding just giving families the boost they need to get started.

He added promoting greater gender equality and empowerment for women benefits the entire community, as more often than with men, women remain at home following their education. He said he has been proud to see the women on scholarship today choosing careers that will directly give back to their hometowns and the future generations that live there.

As an example, Linda, the architecture student, is finishing up her architecture degree at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and has begun creating renderings for a new school in her hometown. The women studying medicine are volunteering in clinics closer to home, as well.

“We are praying we can get more girls on a scholarship,” Fr. Joe said, adding that many more young women in the region are interested. “I think we can do something truly transformational.”

The FMA funds special projects of the Franciscan Friars Conventual as they continue the legacy of St. Francis of Assisi – caring for our poorest brothers and sisters. For more than 100 years, the FMA has supported foreign and domestic missions of the friars and today supports ministries in more than 65 countries.

Fr. Joe has served in Rome as Delegate General for Justice, Peace and Integrity for Creation for the Franciscan Friars Conventual. He has also worked with the Companions of St. Anthony to secure funding for critical medical equipment donated to a clinic he started in his hometown of Jema.

Seeing the Face of Christ

It’ll be a while before Saylor Garcia doesn’t think about what’s for lunch at Assumption Church Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen in Syracuse, New York each day. She lives hundreds of miles away now, having secured a job near Boston, but the kitchen and pantry have left their mark.

Saylor recently finished a year of service with FrancisCorps, volunteering in the kitchen and distribution center. Thousands of vegetables were chopped, but it was the clients that changed her life.

“Getting to encounter the face of Jesus in those who came to receive food almost every day was a true gift,” Saylor wrote in a recent reflection on the FrancisCorps website. “From the person who spoke a different language, to the mother bringing several children to get dinner, to the man who lives in a tent, to the person who just lost their job, and to the kids who came by themselves, they reminded me why I was there. I can only hope they know how much they taught me about God’s endless mercy and love for His children.”

For more than 25 years, FrancisCorps has provided opportunities for volunteers to experience firsthand what it means to live as a Franciscan, serving the community, while also living in community.

A ministry of the Franciscan Friars Conventual of Our Lady of the Angels Province, FrancisCorps continues to invite young men and women to this experience of Gospel life. The goal is helping volunteers turn their year of service into a lifetime committed to living the Gospel in their families, careers, parishes, and communities.

A new cohort of volunteers joined the program in August, shortly after six college graduates completed their service year, including Ali Tregle, who spent her year of service at St. Joseph’s House for Women.

“I learned to slow down and truly see people for who they are, beyond their circumstances, and to hold space for them with gentleness and respect,” Ali wrote in a reflection titled, “When Service Becomes Formation.” She continued, “My time at Joseph’s House strengthened my interpersonal skills in a way that will carry into my career, teaching me how to build authentic connections rooted in compassion and trust.”

Ali is moving on from her year of service into a career as a Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor (PLPC) and will be counseling individuals facing adversity much like those she encountered last year.

“I hope to continue serving God and others through my career, carrying the lessons of mercy, hope, and the inherent dignity of each person into every session I share with those entrusted to my care,” she wrote. “I learned that service often looks like simply being present and listening, and that this, too, can be a profound act of love.”

Compassion and Forgiveness: Foundations of a Life of Faith

For Jake Schneider, the family connection to St. Francis High School in Hamburg, New York goes back to the laying of the first stones.

In the years since Jake’s father worked for the construction company that built the first St. Francis High School building, three generations of Schneider men have been students: Jake, his sons, and now his grandsons.

“I’m proud to have been able to have my sons, and now grandsons, attend St. Francis and benefit from learning the same things I did,” Schneider, St. Francis Class of 1973, said. “We were taught compassion, forgiveness, and understanding.”

St. Francis High School is sponsored by the Franciscan Friars Conventual of the Our Lady of the Angels Province. Donations from Companions of St. Anthony support scholarships for students attending St. Francis and other Province-sponsored high schools. Through their gifts, Companions help friars spread the teachings and values of their founder, St. Francis of Assisi.

Students attending St. Francis High School benefit from an education rooted in faith and spiritual growth. This comes in the form of daily prayer, retreats, and service projects.

As one rising senior, Patrick Coughlin, at St. Francis High School explained, attending a Catholic high school is about more than “the fancy tie and dress shoes you wear to school everyday.”

Patrick added: “It’s the logo you wear on your chest representing our school and what we mean as a brotherhood. How we should conduct ourselves as St. Francis gentlemen and men of God towards others.”

An exciting donor match opportunity, sponsored by Jake and his family, is available up to $100,000. All gifts made to this fund will be doubled, and used for unrestricted help for school capital projects, including renovating infrastructure and supporting arts and sports programs for students.

“Our hope is our gifts will perpetuate their ability to provide a Franciscan education to even more young men,” Jake said.

Brotherhood and Collaboration  

Friar Nicholas Rokitka, OFM Conv, St. Francis Class of 2002, spent a year teaching at St. Francis during his final year of formation (2014) and returned to the school full-time in 2024 as the business manager. He is one of seven friars on staff at the school serving as an important presence on campus.

“We demonstrate the community and the brotherhood we’re trying to teach the students,” he said, which can be invaluable for young men whether or not they pursue religious life after graduation. “In a world where everyone is fighting for their own turf, the collaboration we teach makes young men more attractive in future careers as they are easy to work with and better prepares them for their future.”

In fact, it was witnessing the life of brotherhood and service among the faculty when Friar Nick was a student that helped inform his own discernment process. That, and the opportunities for service.

Service in Action

St. Francis High School continues to be a place that fosters a strong sense of brotherhood and community – students build lifelong friendships and learn the value of collaboration. And in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, they also come to understand the importance of serving their community. St. Francis High School, and other high schools sponsored by the friars of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, are deeply committed to providing opportunities for extensive community service.

“Our charism is so valuable to these young guys,” Friar Nick said. “The sense of community and charity really go hand in hand.”

St. Francis students can take weekly trips to the local soup kitchen and have the chance to participate in service trips and pilgrimages outside of the Buffalo, NY-area.  Whether assisting local charities, going on international mission trips, or mentoring younger students, the young men learn through performing service.

For Fr. Nick, the service component of his high school education more than two decades ago was a key part of his decision to join the Franciscan community. While that’s not the case for every student who comes through St. Francis High School, learning to live a life of service benefits all students.

“A lot of things have changed, but the vision of the school is the same,” he said. “It remains fundamental that there’s community and charity in all we do, and we demonstrate how to follow Jesus.”

As St. Francis continues to attract more and more students, including from farther zip codes, the special projects funded by this donor match opportunity will offer even greater returns.

To take advantage of this donor match opportunity and support the St. Francis High School, please email info@companionsofstanthony.org for more information.

 

Q&A: Province Archivist, Mary Doehla

Boxes of documents, photos, and items for cataloguing and preservation often appear in a small office of the first floor of the Immaculate Conception Friary in Rensselaer, New York. Most of the time, the contents of the boxes are bureaucratic or liturgical in nature, related to the ongoing work and ministry of the Franciscan Friars Conventual on the East Coast of the United States.

And, according to Mary Doehla, the Our Lady of the Angels Province archivist, even if a paper napkin showed up with notes from an important meeting relevant to the work of the friars, she’d be tasked with preserving it.

“When in doubt, send it to me,” Mary said she tells friars of the Province. “I’d rather get too many things sent to me than records be lost or disposed of.”

Mary joined the Our Lady of the Angels Province in January 2019 and is responsible for preserving the history of the Franciscan Friars Conventual and making that history accessible. A tall order considering the Our Lady of the Angels Province was formed from two merging groups of Franciscan Friars Conventual – the Immaculate Conception and St. Anthony of Padua Provinces in 2014.

But archives do not exist just to merely store information. Mary is so committed to her work because she wants the archive she stewards to be a living resource for friars and lay staff ministering in the Province today.

“As an archivist, my job is to welcome people to come and view records so they can be used and we can learn from them,” she said. “These documents are not just in a holding room because we need to keep them. They are primary resources that capture snapshots of time.”

The St. Anthony Companion recently spoke with Mary about her role as an archivist for a religious Order and how her work benefits friars today. The conversation has been edited for clarity.

The Companion: To ask in the most plain of terms: What does an archivist do?

Mary: My job is to collect, to organize, to preserve, and to provide access to the collection of records the Province has. I help keep records of the history of the governance and activities of the friars and their ministries and make those records available, when needed.

Records run the gamut and it’s everything you would expect would be generated to carry out the friars’ work, from bureaucratic to liturgical. Really, the archives give us a sense of what the Province is, who has been here and what’s been done over the years. I’m proud to be the steward of this collection.

The Companion: Can you describe a ‘day in the life’ of an archivist?

Mary: I have a laundry list of ongoing projects that need to be done and most of my days are spent rehousing and cataloging records obtained from the two provinces that merged in 2014, and really organizing out the extensive joint archive we have now.

If research requests come in, I shift to handling those in a timely manner. Sometimes the requested information may take months to find, so long-term projects are put on hold until those are done. Since this is a private archive, most requests are internal and could be from a friar looking for information about something they did or were a part of in their lifetime. I get most of my requests from Provincial administration seeking information about prior work of friars, Provincial agreements, contracts, or personnel.

The Companion: How do new records come to your custody?

Mary: Before things come to an archive, people working in an office that’s generating papers need to know what they need to keep. So, I’m working to create a formal records retention schedule for every. Information about scheduling appointments or buying supplies is not important for us to save and can be disposed of. But some things need to be maintained and transferred to my office when they are no longer in use. Some things are obvious, but it’s my job to make sure everything that’s needed is coming.

 

The Companion: What is the most memorable project you’ve worked on?

Mary: When I first started and I was creating an inventory of records I came across something that made me stop in my tracks. It was an American flag, folded in the way it’s supposed to if it’s not being used, in a box labeled, among other things, with the word space. It turns out, the flag was gifted to a friar who served as a military chaplain on a naval ship that was tasked with recovering spacecraft as it landed in the ocean. The American flag really sticks out because I was so perplexed.

I’ve also come across some photos that just make you pause. Like photos of friars in Germany before World War II or a photo of a friar with Mother Teresa. Our friars have been everywhere, witnessing history. And I get to see these unique pieces of history and be reminded that our friars are serving all over the world. This archive really is a documentation of people.

 

The Companion: What excites you about coming to work every day?

Mary: What really motivates me is making headway and creating order out of chaos. Really, that’s how I can best describe my job. I’m dealing with hundreds of boxes of materials that haven’t been processed, and I really like that when I open a new box, when I’m finished with it, I will have made those records accessible to anyone who needs them in the future. And there’s information in there that may not have been previously known or remembered.

My work probably seems boring and mind-numbing for some people. But I like it because it means at the end of a project, I will have brought order. I like getting control over chaos.

 

The Companion: How does working with these archival records put into perspective the work of the friars throughout the history of the Order?

Mary: While many of the records I deal with are maybe only a few years or decades old, when I think about the work of the friars we’re really dealing with such a huge expanse of time. St. Francis almost feels mythological because of how long ago he lived, but then I’ll have an experience with a friar that reminds me of that direct connection and suddenly 800 years doesn’t seem that long ago.