Enduring Faith:

The Legacy of Friars in Foreign and Home Missions

By friar Martin Day, OFM Conv.

The Province of Our Lady of Consolation has a strong history of sending friars to foreign missions, in some cases without any expectation that they would ever return. Our first four foreign missionaries who were sent to Northern Rhodesia (now known as Zambia) in 1946 went with the understanding that, more than likely, they would never return; and they did not. They are all buried in Zambia.

Earlier missionary activity, beginning shortly after the province was formed in 1926, our friars served in the “home missions,” areas in the United States where the Church was still being established. In Nebraska and Wyoming, the friars established churches at regular intervals along the railroad and served them faithfully for many years. In the Southwest, the friars were instrumental in establishing parish ministry in places like Carlsbad, Jal, and Hobbs, New Mexico, to name a few.

The next push in mission work began in the 1970s when the province sent friars to Central America to establish the Order there. These dedicated friars did not pay into the province retirement program while they were away. We currently support mission work among immigrants and refugees and the underserved among our own indigenous population. Funds for their future retirement needs are now included in that support.

Care for our senior friar missionaries was not a burning concern, so long as there were plenty of young friars coming after them. Our retirement plan was simple: the older friars would be supported by the younger friars who were in active ministry. The plan worked for decades. It does not work anymore.

Not until 2001 did the province buy into Social Security. The prevailing wisdom was that we could take care of our retirement needs “in-house.” Consequently, many of our friars, those who went on mission as well as those who engaged in ministry closer to home, receive only a small Social Security check each month. They have no “earnings history” to go on, especially if they worked long-term in the foreign and home missions. By the year 2001, it had become clear that the number of young men coming into the Order were not going to be able to support all the older friars in their retirement. Other funds would need to be sought. A sizable portion of the province’s current retirement reserves are made up of the proceeds of the sale of the province’s non-ministry related property. That nest egg has now begun to be depleted as more friars move out of full-time active ministry and become dependent on province resources for their upkeep.

A top focus of our fundraising efforts these days is the support and care of our senior friars—those who went on mission in foreign lands as well as those who worked in the home missions, in one of the province’s traditional ministries. We are grateful for all the support we receive from benefactors who remember the stories of the good work these friars have done and who can relate to their needs in their well-deserved retirement years. We pray that we will be able to count on our faithful friends and benefactors to assist us in this pressing need.

Our retired or semi-retired friars continue to make a difference for the better in the lives of so many people, and these friars find joy and fulfillment in continuing their ministry, even if that ministry is in a limited capacity. There’s an old maxim, “There may be snow on the roof, but there’s fire in the furnace.” Our older friars continue to stoke those fires that drew them to the Franciscan way of life and to provide service to the people of God. Thank you for your help in keeping those fires burning.