Capuchin Franciscan Friars

Find out about the Capuchins

• Capuchin Day Centre Update

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  The Capuchin Day Centre is located in Bow Street, Dublin. It serves breakfasts and hot lunches each day and hands out food parcels of basic groceries, once a week, on Wednesday mornings.
  
  Running costs for the centre are increasing and stand at about €1.3 million a year at present. A grant of €450,000 comes from the HSE annually, with the rest raised though fundraising.
  
  According to Br Kevin Crowley, who runs the Day Centre, he number of people in need has risen dramatically over the past months. "In mid-August the numbers passed 1,000 for the first time, up on the regular 300 or 400. The latest record for a single day was 1,582 people queuing just to receive parcels."
  Many of the people who are now coming for assistance are not homeless or jobless, but simply people struggling to keep their homes and their families amid ever-increasing financial pressures.

• Ireland's Biggest Pro-Life Gathering

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• Iraq

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  Chaldean patriarch warns surge in Iraqi violence will divide country
  
  By Doreen Abi Raad
  Catholic News Service
  
  BEIRUT (CNS) -- The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad denounced a recent series of car bombings and shootings in Iraqi cities that left at least 54 people dead and dozens more injured.
  Patriarch Louis Sako, told Catholic News Service in an email May 20 that the current violence is between minority Sunni and majority Shiite Muslims, who also run the Iraqi government. Christians are not being directly targeted, he said.
  "But they are afraid and their exodus continues nevertheless," Patriarch Sako said of Iraq's Christian population.
  "The morale of Christians in the area is down," the patriarch said.
  Iraq has witnessed the emigration of more than half of its native Christians since the American-led invasion of the country in 2003.

• Syria

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  Four Capuchin friars are working at present in violence-torn Syria, two in Deir Ezzor in the northwest and two in As Suwayda in the southeast, in a place called the Mountain of the Druze”. The presence of these friars is a great source of reassurance for the Christian communities there. The friars report that the situation is worsening and there is a growing fear among the Christians about the future.

• Chad

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  French-speaking Capuchins have been working in Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries for many years. Only 23% of the people have access to drinkable water, which means that cholera, typhoid and intestinal worms are rife. A Capuchin from Quebec, Br. Jean-Jacques Filiatrault worked there for 41 years, concentrating on finding water in the desert. During that period he sank hundreds of wells so that the local people could have clean water, and he saved thousands of lives by his efforts. Br. Jean-Jacques's brother Gerard, also a Capuchin, died in Montreal on 29th October 2010.

• Pastoral Workers Murdered in 2012

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  The following is a list of pastoral workers murdered during 2012.
  In Brazil, Fr. Luigi Plebani (Fidei Donum) was killed in his home; and D. Eduardo Teixeira was murdered in the street.
  In Mexico, Fr. Jenaro Aviña García was killed in his home; and Fr. Teodoro Mariscal Rivas, was found bound hand and foot, with a bag over his head which caused suffocation.
  In Colombia, Fr. Pablo Emilio Sanchez Albarracin was killed during a robbery. In Guatemala, Fr. David Donis Barrera was attacked and stabbed. In D.R. Congo, Sister Liliane Mapalayi, of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary was stabbed to death in the school where she worked.
  In Mozambique, Fr. Valentim Eduardo (IMC) was brutally murdered during a robbery attempt.
  In Tanzania, Fr. Anastasius Nsherenguzi was murdered by a group of youths when he intervened to stop a fight.
  In Madagascar, Fr. Bruno Raharison (SJ) was killed in a street robbery. In Lebanon, Fr. Elie Gergi al-Makdessi, of the Lebanese Maronite Order was killed in the street during an attempted robbery. In the Philippines, Conchita Francisco, pastoral care worker, was shot to death by unknown gunmen in front of the Catholic Cathedral in Bongao, where shortly before she had attended Mass.
  
  May they rest in peace.

• The Forest is Weeping

  
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  José Cláudio Ribeiro Da Silva was shot dead along with his wife Maria do Espírito Santo on Tuesday 24th May 2010 in Maraba, Para State, Brazil.
  Jose (known as "Zé" for short) was a tireless campaigner for the protection of the Amazon forest, and had earned the enmity of those engaged in illegal logging. At a TED presentation in November 2009 Zé said:
  
  “I can be here today talking with you, and a month from now you know what could happen to me – disappeared. Ask me if I am scared. I am afraid. I am a human being. I have fear. But my fear won’t let me be quiet. As long as I have the power to walk I will be denouncing those who are harming the forest.”
  
  A banner outside his house reads "A floresta chora" – "The forest is weeping". And we all have reason to, for the cause of the environment on which we all depend is the cause of humanity.
  On the Friday following (28th May 2010) another rural activist was murdered: Adelino Ramos spoke out for land reform and against the illegal logging. According to the Pastoral Land Commission of the local Catholic Church, he was shot by a motorist as he sold vegetables in the northwestern Amazon state of Rondonia.
  Over the past 20 years more than 1,150 conservationists have been killed in Brazil. Others include Chico Mendes (+1988) and Sr. Dorothy Stang (+2005).
  You can read more about Zé
  Here