Friars celebrate Mass at the Shrine of Saint Brother Pedro de San Jose Betancurt (Hermano Pedrito) and Saint Francis Church in Antigua Guatemala, Friar Jorge Dobles, OFM Conv., is the celebrant.

Mercy Personified

By friar Bob Roddy, OFM Conv.

Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell, there God is dwelling too.
-William Blake

Note: A Custody is a “province in the making” for our Conventual Franciscan Order. A Custody has a certain amount of autonomy from the sponsoring province, in this case, our Province of Our Lady of Consolation (OLC), but still relies on the sponsoring province for support and guidance.

“The friars in Central America are very committed to building up our Franciscan fraternity, not only for ourselves but for the example that we give to those we serve,” friar Jorge Dobles, OFM Conv., the Custos (Major Superior) of our Custody of Mary, Mother of Mercy said in an interview with friar Bob Roddy, OFM Conv.

Friar Jorge, a native of Costa Rica, radiates a warmth and kindness that is underpinned by a deep faith that God is animating and guiding the friars of the Custody as they seek to deepen their fraternal bonds and their ministerial footprint in Central America. Our friars in Central America face a myriad of challenges: widespread poverty, political upheavals, gangs, and illegal drugs, but they also minister to people of deep faith and resilience.

The 30 friars of the Custody care for parishes in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, a house of Initial Formation in El Salvador and Costa Rica, and two locations of St. Francis College in Moravia and Alajuela, Costa Rica. “The friars minister to a very diverse group of people both economically and ethnically,” friar Jorge said. We serve some of the poorest of the poor as well as some of the more privileged members of society in our Collegio, where we hope to inculcate Gospel values into the future leadership of the nation.

St. Francis College confers high school diplomas as well as provides two years of college-level courses, something akin to a junior college in the United States. Friars from the former Immaculate Conception Province arrived in Costa Rica in 1949 and founded St. Francis College the following year with the Collegio San Francisco educating many leaders in Costa Rica, including 1987 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, President Oscar Arias Sanchez. In Costa Rica, a “college” would be what we would call a “high school” in the United States. The friars are excited at the expansion of St. Francis College with a new campus near Alajuela. “We have begun with a grade school and a high school,” friar Jorge said, “we keep adding a grade each year until we reach twelve grades. We hope that the increased revenue from both schools will allow us to support our other ministries in Central America.”

Prior to the merger of the Costa Rica Delegation and the Honduran Custody, the friars of both entities committed to doing shared ministry in a completely new location, Guatemala City. “We are the sole Franciscan presence in Guatemala City, and we have the responsibility for a very historic parish, St. Francis,” recounted friar Jorge. “This shared ministry has helped us get to know one another better.”

Another focal point of the new Custody is the desire to bring the beatification and, ultimately, canonization of the late friar Casmir Cypher who was martyred in Honduras on June 25, 1975. “Devotion to friar Casmir’s memory and his sacrifice steadily grows among the faithful, and our friars find inspiration in his life and his sacrifice. As we collect testimony about friar Casmir, we see a friar filled with joy, who was devoted to the poor and who was on fire with the Gospel message.”

When asked about future dreams for the Custody, friar Jorge stated that the friars of the Custody are still getting to know one another, still listening to one another, and ultimately, listening to the Spirit of the living God whom they genuinely believe guides their fraternity.

In his poem, “The Divine Image,” William Blake wrote that “Mercy has a human heart,” that heart beats strong and steady among our friars in Central America.