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For over two years, the Province of St. Mary has accompanied the Capuchin friars of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as their custody, Our Lady of Hope, develops into a fully independent province of the Order. A number of friars from our Province have ministered in the custody over the last 60 years, including Br. James Donegan, director of our mission office; and Fr. Thomas Faiola, presently serving at Convento Camerino in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. Currently, Fr. Scott Leet is stationed in Chiquimula, Guatemala. And Fr. Ray Richard, who joined the Province in 1964 and has ministered in Central America for decades, is currently living in Nuevo Ocotepeque, Honduras. Our provincial minister, Fr. Robert Abbatiello, made an official visitation this summer. Here is his report. |
Peace and al
l good things to you. I pray this message finds you well.
From July 6 to 12, I visited the Custody of Our Lady of Hope in Central America. I bring you the greetings and prayers of all the brothers there.
Between Sunday the 6th and Friday the 11th, I was able to greet all but one of the friars in the custody. I visited Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. I visited several of the places well-known to many of us in the Province: Guatemala City, Chiqimula, Esquipulas, Ocotopeque (especially El Yunque and Casa de Maria), Belen, and Corpus Christi, to name a few. It was a well-planned itinerary, thanks to our brother, Fr. Juan Pablo Lobos, who serves as the custodial minister. He kept me very busy greeting each of the friars and meeting many collaborators, parishioners, and friends of the friars. At one point we crossed the borders of all three countries within six hours!
There is so much I could share with you about my visit, but at the risk of boring you, I will just share a few highlights, observations and reflections on my short time there.
The friars of the Province of St. Mary are long-remembered, much-loved, and often highly-spoken about in the custody. Repeatedly, the friars and those among whom they serve, recalled the names and ministries of our brothers who were stationed in Central America. Displays of affection and remembrance for those brothers are memorialized in various places, both in churches and other ministries. I was and continue to be very proud and very humbled by our brothers who spent a considerable number of years among the people of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. So, too, are the brothers in the custody well-loved and sought after by God’s people. In every public place we visited, people called out to the friars, asked for a blessing, offered a smile, and seemed genuinely happy to see them.
There is a great desire on the part of the brothers in the custody to continue strengthening the bonds of fraternal support 
that has long existed with the Province of St. Mary. With that, I want to state a clarification of our relationship. We are not in a fraternal collaboration with these brothers; they are a custody of the Province, entrusted to us by the general minister. They do not depend us for, nor do they receive from the Province, any financial support. With Fr. Scott Leet going to Guatemala, and Fr. Carlos Cortez from the custody studying English and assisting at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in New York City, we see concretely the fruits of such mutual fraternal support. In a meeting with Father Juan Pablo and his custodial council, we both agreed to remain in greater communication with each other. We also agreed to being open to sending and/or receiving friars from either circumscription to visit and/or to spend time serving alongside one another in fraternal and ministerial settings.
The fraternal hospitality shown during my visit was second to none! Several friars drove long distances, over some difficult roadways, in order to share in our fraternal meetings, liturgies and site visits. The brothers made fraternity a priority and genuinely seemed to enjoy one another’s company, exhibiting a spirit of joy and positivity. Visiting the novitiate in Ocotepeque was a special blessing, and I hope I captured some of their fraternal joy. I needed that rejuvenation they offered me!
As here in the Province, the friars in the custody are doing wonderful things for the people of God they serve. They have vibrant parish ministries, substantial evangelization efforts, and retreat programs; they sponsor medical, dental, and psychological clinics; they provide food and supplies to the poor; and they care for the elderly who otherwise would be homeless, just to name a few works of mercy.
I could go on with more details about the few days I spent in the Custody of Our Lady of Hope, but by now you may have taken a break or two from reading this. I will continue to reflect on the visit, having been inspired, encouraged, and challenged by what I saw and heard. As we continue to listen to and share with one other in the Province our reflections on renewal and seeking the graces that come from this Year of Hope, please join me in praying for God’s blessing on each of the brothers in the Province and the custody. And please, I beg you, pray for an increase in vocations to our Capuchin-Franciscan way of life, especially in the Province of St. Mary.
