Davidsonville, Maryland
Our Fraternity, the Pope St. John XXIII Secular Franciscan Fraternity, received Canonical Establishment on October 19, 2019 at Holy Family Catholic Church in Davidsonville, Maryland. Our process to be Canonically Established spanned a period of 8 years, from 2011 to 2019, and included extensive research, study, and meetings with various Franciscan regional representatives and clergy during that time.
The following year-by-year sequence of our Franciscan journey towards reaching Canonical Establishment has been preserved, for posterity’s sake for our Fraternity, and we would like to share our journey, as related by one of our original Fraternity founders, with you!
2011 (The Beginnings)
In April 2011, Joan Robinson, a parishioner at Holy Family Catholic Church in Davidsonville, Maryland, invited Judith and Pat Tyrell of the St. Conrad Franciscan Fraternity in Annapolis, Maryland, to meet at Holy Family Catholic Church in Davidsonville, to discuss the creation of a Secular Franciscan Fraternity at Holy Family Catholic Church. Attending this meeting were Secular Franciscan members who were already Professed: Jeanne Catrow, Audrey Bushee, John Cobis, and Adam Jentilet. Father Andy Aaron, Pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Davidsonville, was also present.
A second meeting with 40-50 parishioners from Holy Family and Father Bill Alentino, OFM Cap., was subsequently held, at which time, Mary Thuman, the Minister of the St. Margaret of Cortona Region, OFS, was contacted for advice on how to proceed with starting a new Fraternity. Members of the St. Clare Fraternity in Rehoboth, Delaware were also contacted, since St. Conrad had sponsored that Fraternity into existence as well!
Mary Thurman then contacted the Provincial Minister, Father Matt Palkowski, OFM Cap., who, with Brother Ryan Bradshaw, OFM Cap., met at a later time at Holy Family, and informed those attending that meeting that 5 professed members were required to start a Fraternity, but that they realized those who were Professed were too incapacitated to take on the issue of beginning a new Fraternity and that “it can’t happen here,” and the matter lost momentum. Nevertheless, a small group at Holy Family continued to meet, pray the Liturgy of the Hours and take on some Franciscan-like activities!
2012
The following year, 2012, the St. Conrad Fraternity held an open house and invited us to attend. Four of us did attend – Ron Van Nest, John Cobis, Marie Waleryzak and Dave Konschnik. But again, nothing more restarting a new Franciscan Fraternity at Holy Family materialized.
2013
After several months of continuing attempts to start a Secular Franciscan Fraternity at Holy Family, under the inspiration of Pastor Father Andy Aaron, Father Andy convened another meeting of interested people on September 25, 2013, and a plan was created to make it happen! The next day implementation began – write a letter, state why we wanted a Fraternity started here, and the names of those who are/were already Professed members of the Secular Franciscan Order. In the meantime, Father Andy contacted Patrick Martin, OFS, the Minister of the St. Margaret of Cortona Region, in which this fraternity would be formed, and we discovered that the following parishioners were already Professed Franciscans: John Cobis, Adam Jentilet, Jeanne Catrow, Audrey Bushee and Joan Robinson. But, because of age and physical disabilities, only Jeanne Catrow was considered capable of starting a new Fraternity, which, as already noted, required a minimum of 5 professed members.
Thirty people indicated an early interest in the Franciscans. Patrick Martin, Minister of the Region, subsequently came to a meeting held at Holy Family on December 4, 2013, and laid out the steps we needed to take to become Professed ourselves, as well as the steps needed to form a new Fraternity. He said it would take several years.
By the time a letter was drafted and accepted by the interested parties, the group had shrunk to thirteen people. Ron Van Nest drafted and sent the letter on Dec 10, 2013 to Patrick Martin, formally asking for our group to be designated a Newly Forming Group as the first step in creating a Fraternity. In the meantime, since Patrick Martin had been informed a letter was forthcoming, he contacted Judith Tyrell, Minister of the St. Conrad Fraternity of Annapolis on Saturday, December 7, 2013, to determine the feasibility of her Fraternity serving as our Sponsoring Fraternity. She agreed on behalf of her Fraternity to sponsor us. On Friday, December 13, Ron wrote to Judith, introduced himself as having been elected to serve in the role of Liaison to her Fraternity and he asked for her help.
2014
Judith Tyrell, and a contingent from her Fraternity, the St. Conrad of Parzham Fraternity, came to our meeting on January 8, 2014 and the process of Profession began for many of us, along with the process of establishing a new Fraternity.
We learned we were accepted by the Council of St. Margaret of Cortona as a Newly Forming Group on February 22, 2014 and the St. Conrad Fraternity was officially our Sponsor Fraternity. A Liaison was to be appointed from the group to the Fraternity who would attend all Council meetings of the Fraternity, but not have a voting right. The group proposed Ron Van Nest as the Liaison and he was subsequently appointed to that role. He and all other members of the Newly Forming Group began Formation in the St. Conrad Fraternity. Those members were: Kathy Brady, Kevin Dowling, Kathy Duffy, Judy Hool, Sandy Horvath, David Littleton, Mary Rohde, Teresa Shenk, John Treichel, Ron Van Nest, and Marie Waleryszak. These people were subsequently “Welcomed’ into the Fraternity during the summer.
2014 became a year of steep learning curves – we were beginning our Formation for Profession while also working to become a Canonically Established Fraternity and learning how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
As the Liaison, Ron was invited to attend Regional Meetings that were for Fraternity Ministers, but he, of course, had no vote. He also attended Formation meetings, and was welcome to attend meetings of Formation Directors, which he did, along with Jeanne Catrow, OFS. While struggling with the above, we were greeted by our new Capuchin brothers. Since St Conrad was bonded to the Capuchin branch of the Friars Minor, we opted to go with them also. The first Friars we met were Brothers Kip Ledger, Patrick Monahan and John Paul Kuzma. The Provincial Spiritual Assistant was Father Matthew Palkowski, OFM Cap. We learned that we needed a Spiritual Assistant as well, and we needed an altius moderamen, which after months of inquiry, we learned was an agreement by the Provincial Minister General to offer continual spiritual assistance to the Fraternity. Compounding the learning was inconsistent directives promulgated by the OFS and by the National Association of Spiritual Assistants. Ron’s email to the members of the Newly Forming Group summed up the issues and our semi-annual report to the Minister of St. Conrad Fraternity described the year.
2015
The highlight of this year was a Pastoral and Fraternal visit conducted on March 14, 2015 to determine our viability and likelihood of progressing on to Canonical Establishment. The visit was conducted by Patrick Martin, Regional Minister and Brother Kip Ledger, OFM Cap. They were very impressed. At that time, we had 5 Professed members, 10 Candidates and 2 Inquirers.
2016
This year was marked by controversy as to how our Fraternity should proceed, as there were conflicting guidelines written by higher authorities. In any event, we had a Fraternal visit by Al Gigil, OFS, our Area Councilor on Oct 5, 2016. Our Council was Ron Van Nest, Minister; Marie Waleryzak, Vice Minister; Judy Hool, Treasurer; Kathy Brady, Secretary; Jeanne Catrow, Formation; and Kathy Duffy, Councilor at Large. The report “heartily recommended the status change to Emerging Fraternity for this group!” The report indicated we had chosen the name “Pope St. John XXIII” for our Fraternity name.
2017
On March 17, 2017, Ron sent a letter to Very Reverend Thomas Betz, OFM Cap., the Provincial Minister of the St. Augustine Province, asking to be accepted into agreement altius moderamen. On April 20, 2017, Father Tom accepted that agreement. After much confusion and misunderstanding over the sequencing of events leading to Canonical Establishment, we learned, on September 21, 2017, Brother Michael Meza, OFM Cap. was our first Spiritual Assistant, effective immediately. He was appointed by Brother Andrew McCarty OFM Cap., the Provincial Spiritual Assistant. We learned the Regional Executive Council of the St. Margaret of Cortona Region on November 11, 2016 approved our transition to the Pope St. John XXIII Emerging Fraternity, and the members of the Council previously identified are now the new Council of this emerging fraternity effective November 11, 2016.
2018
On April 25, 2018, Ron sent a letter to Robert Longo, OFS, the new Regional Executive Council Minister, asking to put into place the final details for our Canonical Establishment. Months of haggling, but in good faith, followed over the time requirement we were to spend emerging before we could even ask for Canonical Establishment.
2019
Much of this year was spent preparing for Canonical Establishment. Again, because so few people had any experience with this process, there were a lot of questions asked of people who had no idea what the answer was. We were under the impression the Bishop had to celebrate the Mass, not true; but we spent a considerable amount of time trying to negotiate with his calendar, who was to sign the document, and how do you even obtain the document? It all resolved and we had a beautiful ceremony on October 19, 2019 at Holy Family Catholic Church with Father Andy Aaron, who worked so hard behind the scenes, concelebrating the Mass with Father Tom Betz, OFM Cap., the Provincial Minister.