1857 - 2007
(from Newsnotes Vol. 20-No.46 November 16, 2006)
Congratulations-
We offer our fraternal congratulations to Mario Guerrero and John Koelle who will complete their novitiate on 19 November and profess their first vows at a prayer service at Sacred Heart Church, Saturday, 2 December at 11:00 a.m. A reception will follow. All friars are invited. New novices- Welcome to the fourteen new brothers who will begin their novitiate on 2 December and invested on 3 December at Allison Park, PA. Our new intercontinental class of novices will include Ross Chamberland, Sal Cordaro, Michael DiBonaventura, Richard Mattox, and Peter Sloan from our Province.
Two novitiates-
At the last meeting of the North American/Pacific Capuchin Conference (NAPCC) the members agreed to move the starting date of future novitiates from the liturgical year cycle in December, to July. This will begin in July, 2007. Therefore, there will be two novitiates running simultaneously: the one beginning this December with fourteen novices, and the second one, to begin in July, 2007. The location for our second novitiate, for the present 32 postulants who will begin the pre-novitiate program in May, 2007 has yet to be determined. The December novitiate will be directed by William Wiethorn of St. Augustine Province and Christopher Popravak of St. Conrad Province; the July novitiate will be directed by Jeffrey Ernst of the St. Conrad Province and a friar still to be determined. A committee of three Provincials (Michael Banks, Michael Scully and Daniel Anholzer) is researching locations and personnel.Welcome-
Welcome to our brothers Vincent Serrao and Valerian D'Silva from the Holy Trinity Province, Karnataka, India, who arrived in New York on November 6th. Vincent and Valerian will assist us in our ministries at St. Pius X, Middletown (Vincent) and St. John's (Valerian). Fr. Patrick Paraiso, a Diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Manila, Philippines, will also begin ministry at St. John's this week. Patrick is a candidate for our Province and is applying to the postulancy program that will begin next August. Valerian and Patrick will replace Andrew Drew who now resides at St. Conrad friary, White Plains, and Carmelo Gagliardi, who has left St. John's for a new position in Rome.
Celebration in Guatemala-
Francis Gasparik and I attended the celebration of 50 years of Capuchin presence in Guatemala on Saturday, 12 December in Chiquimula, Guatemala. It was a joyous occasion attended by over 1,000 people and almost every friar from the North Central American General Vice Province. The main celebrant of the liturgy was Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno. Our brothers, John Clermont and Raymond Richard were superior hosts during our visit.
Renewal of vows-
We congratulate our brother Andrew Nowak who will renew his vows on Sunday, 19 November 2006 in the presence of our post-novitiate communities, in Jamaica Plain, MA.
Andrew is the first member of our province who participated in the intercontinental novitiate in Allison Park, PA.
-Michael Banks
Provincial Minister
