The Diocese of Columbus welcomed members of four religious congregations in 2023.
The new congregations include two orders of priests: the Capuchin Franciscan Friars and the Pallottine Fathers from India.
The Pallottine Fathers are from the Province of Our Lady of Good Health in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. The order, known formally as the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (SAC), was founded by St. Vincent Pallotti and is based in Rome.
The Indian Pallottine Fathers are serving at Columbus Holy Spirit Church. They also served at Columbus St. Philip the Apostle Church, which closed in November.
Father Sesu Maria Crescensis Panguraj, SAC is serving as the chaplain of Columbus St. Francis de Sales High School.
There are also Pallottine Fathers from Poland serving in the diocese. The Polish Pallottine Fathers first came to the diocese in 2020.
The Capuchin Franciscan Friars returned to the diocese in July. The order previously served in the diocese decades ago in Tuscarawas County and at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church.
The Capuchins are now serving at Columbus Christ the King and St. Thomas the Apostle churches.
Father Stephen Fernandes, OFM, Cap. (Order of Friars Minor, Capuchin) serves as the pastor. Fathers Rafael Anguiano, OFM, Cap. and Anthony Baetzold, CFR (Franciscan Friars of the Renewal) serve as parochial vicars.
Father Anthony Essien, OFM, Cap. is the chaplain at Columbus Bishop Hartley High School, and Brother Michael Herlihey, OFM, Cap., who is a deacon and is anticipating ordination to the priesthood next year, serves as the parish youth evangelization director.
The friars belong to the Province of St. Augustine, which is based in Pittsburgh.
The Order of Friars Minor, Capuchin was founded in Italy in 1536. The order has expanded throughout the world and has provinces on six continents.
Father Fernandes said the friars came to the Diocese of Columbus at the invitation of Bishop Earl Fernandes to serve the two east side parishes, which have a growing Hispanic population. About 65% of parishioners at Christ the King are Hispanic, he said.
In the Province of St. Augustine alone, Brother Herlihey said, men who are in formation to become friars have many different cultural backgrounds. With such a diverse population, he said, the friars have a strong understanding of the Universal Church and how to serve interculturally.
“When you live with people from different cultures, then you can serve people from different cultures just because your worldview starts to expand, which is helpful in the Church in the United States and then the Church here in Columbus,” Brother Herlihey said.
“I understand, as the bishop here has described it, our diocese here is growing, and it’s growing largely because of the immigrant population. So, I think that one large reason that Bishop (Robert) Brennan and now Bishop Fernandes were wanting us to come is because this is a strength of our province.”
While walking with the Hispanic community they serve, Father Fernandes said, it will be important for the friars to learn to speak the language – Spanish – and understand their culture.
Father Baetzold, who has served Hispanic communities for years, said that children of immigrants often feel “stuck between two worlds.”
Father Baetzold is eager to minister to children of immigrants who are growing up in the United States but are born of a different culture. He believes the Franciscans are well equipped to serve the immigrant population at the parish, especially the children.
“The great opportunity that we have, and then – the Capuchins – it’s very international, so we understand culture really well, and living together, you have to get to know other cultures and take them to heart,” Father Baetzold said.
“And so, how is it that we can help them assimilate into America while keeping their faith and the best parts of their culture? So, that’s a great opportunity that we have in the diocese, not just to create another Mexico at Christ the King, but especially for the kids: How do we pass on something for them that will assimilate?”
Following Jesus’ example in the Incarnation, when Christ became man and dwelt among His people, the Capuchins seek to be part of the lives of the people they serve. That aspect of Capuchin spirituality, Brother Herlihey said, is something people at his former parishes recognized.
“They often will tell us that they feel like we understand family, which makes sense; we’re a community, down to earth, boots on the ground,” he said.
“And then, the incarnational quality, that really goes back to Francis being so fascinated by the Crèche and the cross, having his conversion through the San Damiano cross, being the one to popularize the Nativity scene, this fascination and just real draw to God becoming man, and then, God really entering into the mess – the mess of a broken world, of a sinful world, of a world that is not perfect.”
Brother Herlihey said he believes parishioners at Christ the King and St. Thomas the Apostle will “pick up the Capuchin spirituality.” Having served at various parishes, he said parishioners often notice the “incarnational quality” of the Capuchin order.
“In my experience with the Capuchins, I think we’ve emulated that we’re not afraid to go into the mess, sometimes into the chaos and into the difficult situations,” he said. “In my experience, I think we tend to do a lot of spending time with the people, even beyond the parish, in their homes, in their communities, in their gatherings.”
St. Francis of Assisi emphasized that his followers, the Franciscans, should be servants, Father Fernandes said.
“Jesus calls us in Scripture,” Father Fernandes said. “He said, ‘I didn’t come to be served but to serve.’ So, taking that Scripture passage, Francis emphasized that, for his followers, his brothers, we have to be lesser brothers.
“That’s what we try to bring in the parish wherever we work – that spirit of being lesser brothers. And so, there’s – I call it – an absence of pomp and circumstance with us.”
Among the congregations the diocese welcomed this year are two orders of religious sisters: the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (FIHM) from Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India, and the Apostolic Sisters of St. John.
The FIHM sisters are serving in Dover and Chillicothe.
The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (FIH) from Kollam, Kerala, India are also serving in the Diocese of Columbus. They came to the diocese in 2022 and serve in Columbus and Chillicothe. Some of the FIH sisters live in the convent at Columbus Our Lady of Peace Church.
Both religious orders are branches of the original order founded by St. Francis of Assisi.
The Apostolic Sisters of St. John are serving the diocese on the west side of Columbus.
The sisters came to the diocese for a one-year trial period and at the end of the year they will decide whether to establish a convent in Columbus.
There are four sisters, two of whom are teaching theology at Columbus Bishop Ready High School and two are directors of religious education (DRE) at Columbus St. Christopher and St. Mary Magdalene parishes.
The Apostolic Sisters of St. John were founded in France in 1984 and have Dominican heritage. The order has two priories, or religious houses, in the United States.
The four sisters in the diocese come from Princeville, Illinois, where their priory was formerly based. The sisters now live in a convent at Bishop Ready. The other priory in the United States is located in New Jersey.
Sister Marie, CSJ, who serves as the DRE at St. Christopher and is originally from France, said that Bishop Fernandes was interested in the community’s “dimension of evangelization and formation of faith.”
The Apostolic Sisters of St. John take their name from St. John the Evangelist, who is known as the beloved disciple.
“There is something in evangelization that wishes to lead people to understand how much they are beloved, how much they are loved by God, how much they are precious in the eyes of God, and especially, also lead them to discover the (Real) Presence of the Eucharist,” Sister Marie said.
“In Chapter 13 of the Gospel (of John), John is resting his head on Jesus after having received communion, and that’s a moment of great intimacy that leads him also to be faithful at the foot of the cross.”
On the cross, Jesus gave His mother to St. John, and the disciple took her into his home, which also symbolizes all Christians receiving Mary as their mother. Perhaps, Sister Marie said, it was because of St. John’s “very intense relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist” that he was faithful at the Crucifixion and received Mary as his mother.
St. John is the author of the Book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, and he is believed to be the author of the Gospel of John. The New Testament also includes three letters of St. John.
“The first letter of St. John … could be summarized as ‘love one another as I have loved you,’ whoever loves his brother loves God, the fraternal love and walking in the truth and loving,” Sister Marie said. “So, this is an important part of the spirituality of St. John that is at our core and what we desire to bring to the Church.”
The order’s charism – what distinguishes the order – is to be beloved disciples like St. John, Sister Marie said. The sisters seek to abide with Jesus in a life of prayer and Adoration and draw others into Christ’s friendship by serving the Church in a ministry of evangelization.
The order evangelizes through helping individuals to encounter the love of Christ.
“John, resting on the Heart of Jesus, discovered the mystery of the charity (love) flowing from the Heart of Jesus given to him and the whole Church,” she said. “John’s zeal (is) to make all the people discover the infinite love of Jesus.”
Sister Marie said, “by providence,” the order’s motherhouse is located near Paray-le-Monial, France, where Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in a series of apparitions that took place between 1673-75.
“The message of Jesus to Margaret Mary – here is this Heart Who so loved the world – is very important for us as Sisters of St. John,” Sister Marie said. “We don’t just want to give a knowledge; we want to transmit a knowledge that leads to greater love of the Presence of Christ and the Heart of Christ.”
The Gospel of John contains many accounts of personal encounters Jesus had with people, Sister Marie said, such as with the Samaritan woman or Nicodemus. The sisters also seek to transmit the spirituality of St. John, which leads to a greater love of Christ, through individual encounters in their mission of hospitality, education and faith formation.
“We are open to ‘short’ missions that could be added to what we do on a daily basis,” she said, such as spiritual direction, giving a talk or a parish retreat.