Franciscans celebrate their history while looking to their future

Through 125 years of history, the challenges facing the Franciscan friars of the Immaculate Conception province have remained unchanged: a lack of priests, economic hardship and isolation in a changing world.

But this anniversary year for the Franciscans marks the creation of some innovative solutions to those challenges. By the new millennium, everything from team-oriented leadership to a virtual-reality seminary may become the norm for the order.

Rev. Canice Connors, OFM Conv., will head up many of those changes. As part of a new team approach to administration for the friars, Father Connors was recently elected to a four-year term as the order's Minister Provincial, along with a four-member team who will oversee both daily operations and planning for the order's future.

The friar, who most recently served as president and CEO of a Maryland treatment facility for clergy seeking help for addictions, describes his new position as "seeing exactly what we need to do, where we need to go, in this changing Church."

New style

Previous provincials had tried to relate directly to all areas of the Immaculate Conception province, which stretches along the east coast of the U.S. from New York to North Carolina, plus missions in Brazil and Costa Rica, he explained.

"There was a tendency to compress the leadership into a single person," he said, joking that "I believe in counter-intuitive measures: Check out what your first instinct is; it's usually the wrong one."

The new leadership model splits the province into three areas, each supervised by a friar known as a "definitor," so that "there will be more immediate contact between the leadership and the friars." While all areas will be served administratively, the friars in South America who have traditionally depended on the order for financial support will be encouraged to become financially autonomous.

Changes

The order plans to take a page from management expert Stephen Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," adapting his model to the Franciscan tradition.

"Our leadership will go through the program," said Father Connors. "We need to start using what's effective in many places."

Other changes are in the works as well. When the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception province began to do their part 125 years ago to establish the Church in the U.S., there weren't enough priests to serve the rapidly growing communities. Today, the decline in vocations has resulted in a similar problem.

But statistics show that young people are once again interested in entering religious life, said Father Connors, so the Franciscans are designing new vocation programs that fit each region of the province.

"In the South, there's an evangelical cast to Church life," the friar said. "You have to do campus-oriented recruitment. In Syracuse, we're trying to develop a `volunteer corps' to engage young people with the poor. In the central region, New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania, we were very involved in Covenant House, and we may get reinvolved."

Back to roots

Ironically, as the friars celebrate their history, Father Connors noted that they are also going "back to the beginning" in terms of looking at some root causes of problems within the Church.

The "Shalom Project," which has been under discussion by orders of male religious in the U.S. for several years, says that the Church is suffering because of the violence in society.

"We're interested in that because of the history of St. Francis being a peacemaker," Father Connors told The Evangelist. "We're looking at how we deal with violence" as a religious community.

Friary on own

One of the more auspicious projects on the Franciscans' list is their newly created friary in Syracuse, which, in a change from tradition, is not attached to a parish or school. Over the years, Father Connors said, the Franciscan order had "become so identified with parish work that that became dominant."

But the seven friars living at the new friary, who range in age from 27 to 52 and in geographic homes from Staten Island to North Carolina, will spend a year simply getting acquainted with the area and building community before going go out into the surrounding area to begin various ministries.

Since the volunteer corps for youth will also be based in Syracuse, the young people involved will have the opportunity to live in the friary if they desire. In response to the Shalom Project, the Syracuse friars will also be required to study and reflect on the causes of violence before they begin their new work.

Senior friars

In an era when the average age of Franciscan friars is climbing even as their numbers fall, Father Connors hopes to look at ways in which elderly friars can continue to serve: "That's how we stay healthy."

As a result, the older friars living at St. Anthony-on-Hudson Friary in Rensselaer will be placed in parishes like Our Lady of Angels in Albany, "where they have a sense of worth" and can aid with ministries. Our Lady of Angels may see a "major change in our presence" in future years, Father Connors hinted. The buildings available at St. Anthony-on-Hudson will hopefully be rented out for retreats and the like.

Like the Augustinian order, which pulled its friars out of five parishes in the Albany Diocese last year as part of restructuring within the order, the Franciscan rule includes a directive that the friars live in community. In order to meet that need, friars who serve in several parishes now live together in Fonda and travel to their respective churches.

"We allowed friars over the years to become almost isolated," Father Connors stated. "We're cutting that out completely."

Virtual reality

Most daring of all the future projects for the Franciscans is a "virtual seminary." Trained faculty and materials already exist, but seminarians are literally few and far between; and so, since the order still holds the charter for a Massachusetts college that has closed, the school will probably be the "home base" in the next millennium for an interactive seminary that will train friars from five U.S. provinces and England.

"A lot of people say this is where the future lies; it's just getting there," remarked Father Connors. He said the seminary project is presently in "phase II," the organization of materials into a format accessible by computer and production of a course catalog.

As he begins his term as minister provincial, Father Connors himself is finding several ways to serve: He will continue his past ministry of offering priests' retreats all over the country, as well as workshops on sexual abuse and human development issues.

"If you sit in your office, you get lonely," he joked.

Which fork?

Even with so many changes to come, the Franciscans don't plan to rest on their laurels. Father Connors quoted an old story about St. Francis: When traveling with a friend, the saint came to a fork in the road. His companion asked which fork he would choose.

"St. Francis twirled on his heels, and where he stopped is where he went," Father Connors concluded. Remembering a recent chapter meeting of the Franciscans, he cited a "growing sense of hope" among the friars as they planned for the order's future.

When members of the Church compare today's problems only to past successes, "we can do nothing more than grieve," the friar said. "The Spirit's alive in all of us in different ways. You don't have to wear a monk's robe to serve."

(10-09-97)