Profession of First Vows 2025
Our brother Joseph West, OFM Cap., professed his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience
in the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor, the lesser brothers, on Saturday, July 10th. Though the video was delayed for the first 20 minutes, you can still view the profession in the link below.
Join us in prayer for our brother as he begins his journey in our Capuchin way to live the Gospel.
See all the photos on our Gallery pages . . .
Amachi Inspires our Br. Rich Zelik
Our brother Rich Zelik, OFM Cap., serves as a chaplain at the Allegheny County Jail along with his assistance to communities of Religious women and various parishes in the Pittsburgh area. He’s taken a special interest in the work of Pittsburgh's Amachi, a program seeking to empower, nurture and protect the most vulnerable within the criminal justice system - the children of the incarcerated. 
Rich knew something had to be and could be done for the inmates of the jail whose families at home suffer from the absense of a parent. As Br. Rich says: "I soon learned that the organization could positively impact children to review and to reassess their ‘social DNA’ via loving and honest adults, along with the help of peers. Just as one’s physical DNA can be flawed, likewise one’s ‘social DNA’ can be affected and flawed!"
497 and Counting: Celebrating the Capuchin Birthday 2025
On Wednesday, July 3, our General Minister Roberto Genuin, OFM Cap., led a large group of friars, Capuchin Sisters and Secular Franciscans celebrating the anniversary of our Order. They began in a procession along via della Conciliazione leading to St. Peter's Square and the celebration of Mass in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter.
Brian Newman, OFM Cap. (1935-2025)
Links to Funeral Arrangements and Video possibilities are at the article's end.
Our brother Brian Newman, OFM Cap., passed on to life in the Lord’s eternal peace on Monday June 30, 2025, at our motherhouse in Pittsburgh, PA. He celebrated his 90th birthday just 10 days before though he’d been in failing health since a cancer diagnosis in January. He chose to begin hospice care at that time; it was his sincere hope that all the friars accompany him in this final journey with their prayers, and he was consoled that his illness was advancing during the Church’s Jubilee Year of Hope. He wanted news of his illness to be shared widely so that our prayers and fraternal regard would be his “companion on this pilgrimage to our Father.”
Robert Newman was born June 20, 1935, and, being from his beloved Charleston, WV, was a self-described Mountaineer, a proud Appalachian. Son of Elmas and Betha (Lynch) Newman, he was baptized at Sacred Heart Church in the city where our Capuchin Franciscan friars had lived and served for decades. Sadly, his older sister, Patricia Ann, died at the age of 12.
Our Capuchin Province Elects New Leadership Team
L-R are our brothers John Paul Kuzma, Emilio Biosca, Minister Robert Marva, Brian Stacy & Paul Zaborowski
At our triennial Chapter for our Capuchin Province of St. Augustine, we elected our leadership team to serve for the next three years. Re-elected as Provincial Minister was our brother Robert Marva (center) and chosen to serve as his Provincial Vicar was our brother Emilio Biosca. Completing the Council were brothers Brian Stacy (re-elected), Paul Zaborowski and John Paul Kuzma.
Our roving brother photographer, Pablo Lopez, has posted his work
on our website Gallery pages for all to remember, celebrate and enjoy.
Celebrating 500 Years of Capuchin Life: First Came the Habit
Between April and May 2025, we commemorate half a millennium, 500 years, since a Franciscan Observant friar, Matteo da Bascio, felt God's call in his heart to return to the way of life that he perceived was intended by Francis of Assisi for his brothers. In the spring (April-May) of 1525, Matteo, wearing a simpler habit and a pointed hood, barefoot and carrying a cross, began his journey as an itinerant preacher. Although at first his desire for a more austere life was not well received, he obtained the verbal approval of Medici Pope Clement VII, who allowed him to live according to this ideal. What was born in the silence and humility of a single friar soon became a legitimized reform that revitalized the Franciscan spirit in Italy and would, ultimately, spread throughout the world.
We'll let Cuthbert Hesse of Brighton's narration mark the occasion (The Capuchins, vol. I, p. 21):
Our Cleveland Parishes Collaborate on a Lenten Revival
The parishes of St. Agnes/Our Lady of Fatima and Holy Spirit in Cleveland sponsored the Collaborative Lenten Revival on the evenings of Ash Wednesday through Friday, March 5-8 at St. Agnes. It was in conjunction with the four African American Churches of the Diocese, presenting this three-day Revival as a jumpstart for the forty-day Lenten Journey.
"And Then Came Dawn" Gets Another Life
At our Capuchin archives in Pittsburgh, PA, we've digitized some of our videos that would no longer be available to posterity when the last VHS cassette player is laid to rest (and most may have already gone to their eternal pastures or friary basements?). The most recent is an important film in our Province story: And Then Came Dawn.
And Then Came Dawn, highlighting our mission work in Papua New Guinea which had begun in 1955, was filmed in the early '70s and produced by Karl-Heinz Stellmach, the photographer who filmed the outdoor scenes of Austria in the film The Sound of Music in the early '60s. The film was shown on national public television stations in Spring of 1973.
The Pittsburgh showing on WQED-TV was on Sunday, April 8th, 1973, at Noon, and arrived with a lot of fanfare among our brothers. It was acclaimed as a "masterpiece of anthropology and mission documentation." [Carnegie Alumni News, March 1973] The Pittsburgh incarnation included all three segments of the production in a 90-minute presentation. Now that it's been digitized from a VHS tape you can view all three together on our posted video. And we found quite a few faces of friars in their younger days as you can see in the collage.
March for Life 2025
January's March for Life certainly experienced a Capuchin presence . . . . As our brother Pablo Lopez, OFM Cap., our photographer and reporter wrote:
We had our brother Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap., as the celebrant for the Mass for Life in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrines, joined with many concelebrants. Our Vocation Director, Br. Mike Herlihey, OFM Cap., was the homilist for the Mass." To round out the group, our Cap Corps Lay Volunteers, friars from Baltimore and Cleveland's Capuchin Formation Program were in attendance at the Mass and march, as well as as well as 14 candidates who were staying the weekend at Capuchin College to discern our way of life.
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