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A Novena of Latin Masses will be offered by the contemplative branch of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate at their Ritiro Mariano Friary in Amandola, Italy. The intention of the Novena is for THE SANCTIFICATION OF ALL FAMILIES (or persons) enrolled in the Novena. The nine Masses will begin at the Easter Vigil Mass on April 7th and will conclude on Divine Mercy Sunday April 15th...

STEUBENVILLE, OH—Franciscan University of Steubenville awarded its 2011 Poverello Medal to Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR, for his lifetime of service to the materially and spiritually poor. The medal, which is the highest, non-academic honor the University can bestow, was presented to Father Groeschel on Thursday, November 17, 2011, in New York City. The awards ceremony began with Mass, attended by Franciscan University friends and alumni, as well as members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the order that Father Groeschel helped found in 1987. The Mass was held at the Church of the Guardian Angel in Chelsea. Father...

Twin brothers Adrian, left, and Julian Riester answered God's call in the 1940s: the Franciscans instead of Army. From the moment of their birth in Buffalo 92 years ago, twin brothers Julian and Adrian Riester rarely left each other's side.They played together, went to school together, as young men traveled cross-country together -- and, in their 20s, joined the Franciscan order together.And on Wednesday, after 65 years as identical twins wearing the identical brown robes of the Franciscans -- mostly at St. Bonaventure University -- Brother Julian Riester and Brother Adrian Riester died together at St. Anthony Hospital in St....

What happens when a former US Marine becomes a Franciscan friar and then goes on to found a monastery in the toughest district of Ireland’s toughest city? In 2007, Father Sylvester and a small group of American friars from the Bronx, N.Y., did just that when they arrived in Limerick, Ireland. They left behind their former lives as a teacher, a soldier, a punk-rock singer, and a rapper to transform lives through prayer. The urban district they live in, Moyross – a sea of burned-down and boarded-up houses – is always in the news for the wrong reasons: drugs, shootings,...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Some 1,800 Franciscan friars from all over the world were expected to converge on the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, Italy, to celebrate the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule. For the first time, representatives from the four main Franciscan branches were to meet in Assisi -- the birthplace of their founder, St. Francis -- to take part in an International Chapter of Mats April 15-18. A Chapter of Mats gets its name from the time in 1221 St. Francis called more than 3,000 friars to the Portiuncula chapel in Assisi for a...

St. Padre Pio Rome, Sep 22, 2008 / 12:39 pm (CNA).- In an article published by the L’Osservatore Romano, Francesco Castelli, a biographer of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, has revealed details of the first investigation in 1921 by the Holy Office—now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—into the life of the Italian priest and the authenticity of his stigmata.Castelli explained that the recent opening of the archives that contain the information on the first investigations show that it is not true that the Holy Office was suspicious of Padre Pio, but rather that there was admiration and...

http://www.airmaria.com/?sn=37&vp=1988&prefx=finews&plyrnb=1&ttl=FI%20News Video - FiNews #37 - FI Vocations Video (Short Version) FI News #37 - The life and charism of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. ( 04min) >>> Play Ave Maria! Here is the short version of our vocations video. The long one (8 min) is to come out in a week or two. Enjoy this video of our charism and life as Franciscan friars totally consecrated to the Immaculate and if you know anyone who is discerning a vocation or you think has a vocation, please forward them the link. And most of all, please pray for vocations....

Italians were shocked yesterday by a ferocious assault on Franciscan monks by hooded thugs at a monastery in the foothills of the Alps which has left one of the monks fighting for his life. Father Sergio Baldini, 48, the guardian of the San Colombano Belmonte monastery near Turin, and three elderly monks from the Franciscan order of Friars Minor were having their evening meal when they were attacked by three hooded men who gagged and bound them before punching, kicking and beating them with clubs. Father Baldini suffered severe head injuries but also has "serious respiratory problems" because he choked...

Bishop leads pilgrimage to "Georgia martyrs" site ST. CATHERINES ISLAND - Their last moments must have been lonely. Surrounded by a mob of angry Indians, five Franciscan friars from Spain died trying to bring Christianity to the coast of modern Georgia. More than 400 years later, leaders of the Catholic Diocese of Savannah are working to have those missionaries declared martyrs, and someday, possibly saints. After 23 years of research by church officials, the Rev. Conrad Harkins, a historian at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, hand-delivered documents to the Vatican in April - marking the official start of the argument...

In recent times, an expert on angelology and demonology, the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, Fr. Gabriel Amorth, wrote a most concise and lucid summation of the Franciscan thesis in his book An Exorcist Tells his Story. Before he ‘tells his story’, he begins by “first stating some basic facts about God’s plan for creation.” He writes (in Chapter 1): “All too often we have the wrong concept of creation, and we take for granted the following wrong sequence of events. We believe that one day God created the angels; that He put them to the test, although...

A Son of St. Francis, A Knight of the Immaculate 1923-2007 Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage, FI was born in Portland, Oregon in 1923, the youngest in a family of five brothers. While he was still young the family moved to San Francisco and it was here that he was raised. During the period of World War II, Br. Francis served his country in the United States Air Force as a naval aviator. It was in this period of his life that Our Lord was preparing him to engage in a different type of service. One day Brother attempted to perform...

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (CNS) -- In late July, carloads of curious Catholics caravanned north from their church to a mosque in the next county. Three dozen Catholics who regularly attend Mass at the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement's Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison accepted a Muslim visitor's invitation to attend services at Masjid Al-Noor, his mosque in Wappingers Falls. Entering the two-story white frame building, the visitors placed their shoes alongside their host's on wire racks lining one wall of the foyer. The women, already modestly covered from chin to ankle, pulled on scarves to cover their hair. The...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Since 1899, a Franciscan monastery in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington has been a popular stop for pilgrims who want a glimpse of the Holy Land. The grounds of the monastery feature dozens of replicas of significant Christian sites from Europe and the Holy Land, including many surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The friars of Mount St. Sepulcher Franciscan Monastery and Commissariat of the Holy Land represent the Christian interest in the Holy Land, and it shows in the beauty of their church and the surrounding gardens. Brother Maximilian Wojciechowski, a friar of...

Fr. Francis Mary welcomes the The Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal was Established in 1988 under the auspices of John Cardinal O’Connor of New York, with Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, as Founding Father. The aim of the Community is to live the Gospel values in simplicity according to the ideals of Saint Francis as handed on by the Capuchin tradition. The spiritual values uniting the sisters are personal and communal commitment to Jesus Christ through contemplative and liturgical prayer (daily Mass and Divine Office), daily Eucharistic adoration, Fridays as a special day of prayer, a time set...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) -- Palestinians now can enjoy a new, one-of-a-kind sports center where they can work out, practice on regulation-sized courts and play safely. "It's something good to bring to Bethlehem, such a place. There is no place like this where women and also men can practice sports," said Sylvia Ghattas, 21, as she finished her workout in the gym of the Catholic Action-run sports center. The building, financed by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, boasts the only regulation-sized and equipped basketball court in the Palestinian territories, as well as a gym and two multipurpose halls....

Nazi Eichmann's passport found in ArgentinaThe passport used by notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950 has been found by accident in an archive in Buenos Aires. The passport, still in good condition, was issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Eichmann was one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler's 'final solution', the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II. A judge, Maria Servini de Cubria, stumbled upon the document in court archives. The passport has been handed over to the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires, which confirmed the discovery....

Westerners sometimes assume that Europe and North America are always on the side of the angels when it comes to religious freedom, so that the “reciprocity” question dear to Pope Benedict XVI is largely a matter of bringing the Islamic world up to Western standards of tolerance and liberty. In fact, however, the reciprocity question can be complicated in the West too, in a way that certainly doesn’t escape the attention of Muslim eyes. The rubber hits the road in places such as the blue collar neighborhood of Cornigliano in the Italian port city of Genoa, where plans by Italian...

The Capuchin Franciscans began their 83rd General Chapter this morning in Rome with a Mass celebrated by the community's first cardinal in half a century, Boston's Sean P. O'Malley. The gathering, held at the order's International College of St Lawrence of Brindisi, runs until 17 September. The chief order of business awaiting the 200 or so delegates is the election a new General Minister in succession to Canadian Fr John Corriveau, who has reached the limit of two six-year terms. While the order will release an official summary of each day's activities, interested parties would be wise to keep...

St. Padre Pio during the Offertory of the Latin rite Mass according to the Traditional Missal.

(Taken from the old Breviary) While the Mohammedans were besieging Assisi and trying to seize the monastery of St Clare, she desired, though sick, to be carried to the gate of the city, together with a vessel in which the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist was contained, and there she prayed: "Do not hand over to the beasts, O Lord, the souls confessing you, and guard your maid-servants, whom thou hast redeemed by thy Precious Blood!" At whose prayer, a great voice was heard: "I will always protect you!" Indeed part of the Musselmen betook themselves to flight while...