The late Capuchin Franciscan Fr. Regis Paul Scanlon’s ministerial life was as remarkable as a profile from Butler’s Lives of the Saints. Not only was his ministry wide-ranging, but his “crowning” work came 13 years after being given just a month to live. Born on Feb. 17, 1943, in Pittsburgh, Pa., to Jeremiah and Dorothy (Meyer) Scanlon, when he died after a long illness on Nov. 6, 2021, in

The benefits of the rapid exchange of information, via the internet, have afforded countless multitudes new opportunities to learn and grow—not just into more interesting or well-read people, but into a people who can better understand Christ and his Church through continuing education about the Faith. These opportunities prompted St. John Paul II to remark in the 1990’s that , “immediate access

In a major step on their journey toward priesthood, three Capuchin Franciscan friars of the Province of St. Conrad were ordained transitional deacons on March 19 in San Antonio, Texas. Brother Vincent Mary Carrasco, Br. Luke Jordan and Br. Jordan Rojas were ordained deacons by Bishop Gary Janak before a crowd of family, friends and formators at Immaculate Conception Chapel of the Oblate School

Pope Francis issued a rescript on May 18, allowing the possibility for lay members of a mixed religious community to be elected to positions of leadership. This welcome change was a long time coming and there is an important history behind it. It was the heads of the four major men's branches of the first order Franciscans: Friars Minor, Conventuals, Capuchins and Third Order Regulars (TOR’s) that

We know with certainty that St. Francis of Assisi was never ordained to the priesthood, although there is some evidence to suggest he may have been a deacon. Nevertheless, Francis exercised the role of leadership over the order which he himself had founded for several years. At the Chapter of 1232, Elias of Cortona, also a lay brother, was elected as the successor to St. Francis. Lay brothers were