THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF THE RENEWAL
10 YEARS LATER!

by Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R.

There is an old Chinese proverb that says, "The journey of 10,000 miles begins with the first step." This proverb expresses a very important truth. It tells us that our every undertaking or task in human life, whether personal or communal, can only become a reality if we take that absolutely necessary first step to begin to carry it out. No first steps, no journey begun, no venture undertaken, no task accomplished!

The journey of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal as a new experience in Franciscan life and history in the United States began 10 years ago. Its first step was taken on April 28, 1987. On that day, 8 Capuchin-Franciscan friars went to their provincial supervisors to express their desire to begin a new experience of Franciscan life in the Capuchin tradition. This desire was their felt response to the call of Vatican II and especially of Pope John Paul II to go back to the roots of their religious community, rediscover their original charism and purpose for existence, and then attempt to live it as authentically and meaningfully as possible in the Church today on the very threshold of the Third Millenium.

With the blessing of John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, these 8 friars were given a former parish church, St. Adalbert's on East 156 Street in the South Bronx, where they could live among and work more directly with the poor and destitute. This would enable them to carry out their objectives as expressed in their "Statement of Charism:" To preserve the spirit and life of St. Francis in their apostolate, the friars will carry on the work of evangelization by preaching and other non-parochial ministry (to the poor) in the manner of the early Capuchin reform (Rule of Life, #2).

Ten years after that first step, the community has journeyed a long way. We now number 4 friaries with approximately 40 members including novices. (There is also a parallel Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal community with one convent and nearly 10 members.) There have truly been many blessings.

On April 21, 1997, Cardinal O'Connor paid our community a special visit to celebrate with us in thanking Almighty God for what He has done for us over these past 10 years. It was the feast of the humble and holy Capuchin lay-brother, St. Conrad of Parzham. The Cardinal used the occasion to bless our newest house, St. Joseph Friary on West 142 Street in Manhattan. Like the "Cardinal-Protector" of old that St. Francis requested that the Pope give to his fraternity to safeguard its link with the Catholic Church, Cardinal O'Connor used the occasion to speak to us an inspiring message about the authenticity which should always characterize our Franciscan life of renewal. His words speak for themselves:

"It is a real joy for me to be here, as I know it is for Father Benedict and most particularly for those who were the pioneers making that leap of faith; plunging into the darkness knowing, as St. Anselm says, that the darkness was only because of the limit of their vision - the darkness was not in the God of light.

"So I congratulate you, but more, I thank you. I thank you for what you are doing. I thank you for what you are. And why do I thank you? I thank you for the same reason for which I would thank St. Francis; for which I would thank St. Conrad and it is the one virtue that I pray would always guide you. I would thank St. Francis and St. Conrad for their authenticity. When you lose your authenticity you lose everything. You lose your very purpose for being. You lose that charism, that wonderful gift that God has given you - to serve His people in a very special way.

"St. Francis set about rebuilding churches. He was not so presumptuous as to say, "I will rebuild the Church." There are many who have determined that they would rebuild the Church in the course of history. They have but built their own egos, their own reputations. Whatever symbolism there was in St. Francis rebuilding churches, that was for others to attribute, not for him to articulate. Everything he did, he did with authenticity. I ask you to reflect upon that. Perhaps it is not a word or a concept that you have thought of in conjunction with St. Francis, I have reflected much on his poverty with my own Sisters for Life. Poverty is the fundamental virtue because all things flow from that: poverty of the will, that we call obedience; poverty of the body and the desires that we call chastity; and then the obvious poverty, freedom from material possessions. Poverty is the ultimate freedom. And you practice that, or you attempt to practice it fully. And this of course is to walk in the footsteps of St. Francis. But even poverty can be practiced without authenticity. Even poverty can become a sham. Even poverty can become a cause of pride, of arrogance, of vanity: 'I am poorer than you are, and so I must be holier than you are.'

"St. Conrad was canonized because of his authenticity in one of the most horrifying, most frightening periods in human history. As St. Francis went about rebuilding churches, so it was St. Conrad who committed himself to trying to rebuild the most sacred church of all: the human person; the human person treated with such indescribable contempt by Hitler and the Nazi regime.

"You are attempting to rebuild. To rebuild, to restore the image and likeness of Almighty God in the human persons who come to you or whom you seek; those who are broken by drugs, broken by alcohol, broken by poverty, broken by sin. This is the great rebuilding of course, but you can do this only in authenticity ...

"You must give the truth. You must give the totality of the truth: the truth of the Gospel, the truth as taught by the Church. Not the truth as speculated, not the truth as we might want it to be, not our own teachings. What are we to teach? The teachings of Christ through His Church. You must practice that truth, not as a sham, not simply in public, but in the totality of every moment of every hour of every day of your lives.

"It is this kind of authenticity that must be your hallmark. When you began your renewal it was to recover what you believed to be initially the authenticity of the Capuchin Franciscan authenticity. I beg of you if you would serve the Church in New York, if you would serve the Church Universal - be, remain, always authentic.

"It has been for me and is now a privilege to have assisted you in your initial, almost infantile steps, recognizing the obstacles. Recognizing that as St. Francis himself had to appeal personally to the Holy Father to establish what was in his world a brand new way of life, so you too ultimately had to appeal to that representative authorized by our Holy Father in the Holy See in order to make it possible for you to enter into what is in this day a revolutionary mode of life. I am pleased, humbled, to have been able to play the tiniest portion of a role in that initial endeavor. I am equally pleased and humbled to be your Bishop in this year of Our Lord, 1997, ten years after the formulation of your way of life. I thank you, I love you, God bless you."