“I never intended to be a missionary.” Brother James Bok, OFM, has uttered those words numerous times over the years. As so often happens though, God had other intentions for this Franciscan friar. He returned stateside from Jamaica on Sept. 11, 2024, 16 years to the day after his arrival …

Br. Bruce Hausfeld, OFM, 90, passed away on March 20, 2024, at Terrace View Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio. A native of St. Bernard, Ohio, Br. Bruce entered the Franciscan Order on Aug. 15, 1952, professed first vows on Aug. 16, 1953, and made his solemn profession on Aug. 16, 1956. …

Franciscan Spirituality flows from the experience of a single man, St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). Son of cloth merchant Pietro Bernardone, St. Francis went from fighting for the values of wealth and fame to feeling contempt for those same values. After suffering for a year in an open pit prison …

by Hannah Brockhaus Rome Newsroom, Dec 23, 2023 / 07:00 am It’s a well-known origin story: how the young and wealthy Francis of Assisi freely abandoned his noble patrimony to serve Christ’s Church as a poor, itinerant preacher. One of the world’s most beloved saints, the founder of the Franciscan …

By Marinella Bandini Jerusalem, Oct 11, 2023 / 11:25 am On Saturday, Oct. 7, Israel suddenly found itself in a state of war. A barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip and attacks by Hamas terrorists who infiltrated cities near the border resulted in the death of over 1,000 people. Among …

The Bleacher Brothers on a summer tour where baseball and evangelization meet. Today’s Video showcases Cincinnati, the St. John the Baptist Province of the Franciscans (and a review of Skyline!)

On June 13, Catholics honor the memory of the Franciscan priest St. Anthony of Padua. Although he is popularly invoked today by those who have trouble finding lost objects, he was known in his own day as the “Hammer of Heretics” due to the powerful witness of his life and …

By CNA Staff Vatican City, Jul 17, 2021 / 05:00 am Pope Francis urged members of the Order of Friars Minor on Saturday to seek renewal as they face “the challenges of declining numbers and aging.” In a message to participants of the order’s general chapter in Rome on July …

CNA Staff, Mar 27, 2020 / 10:21 pm (CNA).- A Brooklyn parish announced the death of its pastor, Fr. Jorge Ortiz-Garay, who died of coronavirus at approximately 6 p.m Friday evening. The priest is the first in the U.S. known to have died from the virus. Journalist Rocco Palmo was …

Father David E. Brinkmoeller Father Brinkmoeller died on Sept. 27, 2019. He was born on July 18, 1945, in Cincinnati, OH. He did his preparatory studies at St. Gregory Seminary and studied theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West in Norwood, OH. He was ordained on May 29, …