Recognizing God’s Role… New Religious Community Serves Arizona Native American Missions
By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — Asked by The Wanderer why someone should consider joining his relatively new religious community, Brother Xavier replied matter-of-factly, recognizing the importance of God’s role in everyone’s life: “Because He’s calling them.”
Brother Xavier was standing on the back patio of a north Phoenix home whose family was participating in the fourth annual fund-raiser for the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit on February 27.
A large monitor allowed guests to follow the virtual event after they had an al fresco dinner of meat and vegetable lasagna, vegetable and fruit salads, brownies and bread, along with assorted beverages, while the sun set behind a high hill just west of the home of Larissa and Ronn Rodgers. “We call it the Rodgers’ Mountain,” Larissa joked later.
About 250 people were participating at 25 homes in the virtual fund-raiser for the community that serves at nine active Native American missions at four reservations around here, said Brother Xavier, who is studying for the priesthood and grew up in Akron, Ohio.
In a telephone interview the previous day, the friars’ director of mission advancement, Anthony Maza, said that before the coronavirus, the fund-raisers had been at “a big tent on the desert” set up next to the friary in Laveen, Ariz., on the southwest outskirts of Phoenix.
Maza said this year’s goal was to raise $280,000 to cover the cost of men’s formation in the religious community for a year.
Members of the community are “an interesting mix of being traditional, very faithful to the Magisterium, while also having a charismatic spirituality,” Maza said.
“. . . By all means they always want to be led by the Holy Spirit,” he said, adding that they’re “men of God’s Word, seeking above all things the spirit of the Lord and its holy operation.”
They also provide speakers for four days, “like a little mini-retreat,” Maza said.
Brother Xavier said seven men with the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular in Loretto, Pa., had felt a call to come here. “Phoenix kept coming up in prayer.”
So five priests and two brothers arrived in May 2015, under the guidance of Phoenix Diocesan Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, to take up residence at the St. Kateri Tekakwitha Friary, next to St. John the Baptist Mission, in Laveen — a mission that also offers Traditional Latin and healing Masses now, Brother Xavier said.
In 2016 the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit was established as a Public Association of the Faithful and its members made the promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience to Olmsted, the community’s website (becomefire.faith) says.
A total of eight young men are in formation now, said Brother Xavier, who wasn’t a member of the original group that arrived here.
In addition, one community member serves at St. Anthony Indian Mission in Zuni, N.M.
For those pursuing theological studies, Olmsted “determined it was best for them to go to Sacred Heart” Major Seminary in Detroit, Maza said, so four are students there this year, living at Greyfriars House of Studies under a priest who’s vicar for priests.
Spiritual Martyrdom
The website says that in accord with the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, “our primary charism is metanoia, or ongoing conversion. We are penitents, striving always to take up our crosses and follow closely after Jesus Christ. In union with Him, we offer prayer and sacrifice for our own sins and those of the whole world.”
This takes form, it continues, by “the spiritual martyrdom of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience,” through which “men become members of a brotherhood that is founded on the Gospel and enlivened by the Holy Spirit. This brotherhood exists to glorify God, to sanctify the Holy Church, to spread the Gospel, and for the perfection of its members in the service of charity.”
Although Laveen’s St. John the Baptist Mission was founded by the Franciscans in 1898, no pastor had lived on the reservation for decades, the website says, while “faithful parishioners prayed for years for the return of Franciscan priests.” In the meantime, retired diocesan priests served at Native American communities.
“Our Native American parishioners and the unique aspects of their culture and heritage are a gift to the Church,” the website says. “We seek to elevate and illuminate the richness of their traditions with the beauty of the Gospel. As such, the most crucial part of our ministry is the celebration of the sacraments to bring grace and the very real, transformative love of Christ to our communities.
“. . . Our parishes also offer Bible studies, youth groups, religious education, men’s and women’s groups, and adult catechesis to hand on the fullness of our Catholic faith,” it adds.
Brother Xavier told The Wanderer that about 12,000 to 14,000 Catholics are served here, some of whom face challenges. “My heart goes out to them. They’re really traumatized people,” with “the history of abuse of Native Americans. In their homes there’s a lot of struggles, addiction.”
Larissa Rodgers told The Wanderer that she first encountered these Franciscans during a retreat given for the Catholic Medical Association of Phoenix. The diocesan bishop, Olmsted, has attracted the service of “so many priests who are on fire” for the Lord, she said.
