I used to think that was the case with all Religious Orders / Congregations etc.
Unfortunately, since not all of them are booming with vocations, sometimes there are not enough people to take care of the ill.
The congregations are different from the orders. The congregations were founded for a particular ministry. With the exception of the Dominicans and Jesuits, the orders were founded to live the fraternal life. That’s the main apostolate in a religious order, excepting the two that I mentioned. Dominicans and Jesuits were founded to preach.
What happens in congregations is that they are often tied up in their work. If they runs schools or hospitals, etc , you can’t pull someone out to take care of a sick brother or sister. You have to make arrangements. Usually, they’re sent to the mother house where there are novices, if they have novices.
In the orders, they can stay in their house, because the orders have no qualms about canceling Sunday masses at a parish because a friar has to be home with a sick or older brother. The mass is not as important as the older brother. He can celebrate mass in the room with the brother and the laity can find another mass.
Friars like me, who are in outreach ministries can drop everything and take care of a sick brother. If I can’t go to the pregnancy centers, someone else will volunteer. If we can’t take care of the pregnancy center, because we have no brothers, we close it as long as necessary. That’s not a big deal to us. Ministry to our own comes first.
We drop everything for the annual community retreat, for chapters, meetings, anniversaries, ordinations, profession of vows. We have been known to travel all night and leave a parish closed to go to the profession of a novice. When we go into a diocese we make this perfectly clear to the bishops. The bishops always promise that the lay faithful will adapt to the Franciscan spirituality or they will find another parish, school, program or whatever. Without that understanding with the bishop, we don’t take on any ministry in any diocese.
For example, in NYC, at St. Francis Church, the diocese set them up as a non territorial parish. They’re a parish without boundaries. They’re for anyone who happens to be downtown. This way, they have no commitments to a parish school, a convent of sisters next to the school or the local hospital. They can spend their time with the people and with each other. That place is like a revolving door. There are more strange people walking through the door than Grand Central Station. The friars who manage the Church bring in the income to put food on the table for everyone in the house. There are many friars at that house whose work does not provide an income. But that’s how fraternity works.
I’m pretty sure that the Dominicans do the same thing. I know their house in Washington, DC. I went to school across the street. At the Dominican House of Studies, only a few friars bring in money. They teach and go out to preach missions. But most of the friars are in formation or are formators. They have no income. But the friars around the province send money to the mother house, which is channeled to the house of studies. The house of studies also serves as home to many older and sick friars. It’s a great place for them, because they’re with young friars who have energy and put life into the old guys. Even the friars who do not live there have a vested interest in those who are there. That’s fraternity.
I don’t care whether you’re Franciscan, Dominican or Benedictine. The truth is that as much as the old guys complain about the young guys, they love being with them.
They would be bored to death if they could not complain about the friar who shows up for prayers in running shorts. The wouldn’t be happy if they could not complain about the friar who has a pony tail. They would not be happy if they could not complain about the younger friar who is always telling them what to do and what not to do. I saw one friar complain about the fact that the younger friars prayed too fast and he couldn’t keep up. The truth was that he was blind as a bat. He had lost his sight with age. But he did not want to admit it. He was a riot. He would bump into big statutes that we had on the grounds and say, “Excuse me, but can you get out of my way?”
One day I looked at him and said, “Greg, how slow do you want us to go?” He looked at me and said, “Don’t be a wise a*s.” LOL
That’s fraternal life.
Fraternally,
Br.JR, OSF
That is pretty amazing, thanks for sharing something so personal.
I know that Dominic himself forced several of the friars who were ill to take extra food, etc. during the early years of the Order. How that is handled today is something I do not know.
