Known to all as Marty, Fr. Martin Kirk, CMF was born in Chicago in 1938. When a Claretian vocation director visited his home in the early 1950s to talk to his brother, it was instead Marty who enrolled at Saint Jude Seminary in Momence, IL. After his ordination in 1965, he began his first assignment […]
Marty: A Retrospective on the Life and Leadership of Fr. Martin Kirk CMF Read More »
In 1983, the Claretians living at the Provincial house in Oak Park, Illinois, decided to participate in the neighborhood’s Wright Plus walk. This was a one-day, per year, event that allowed visitors to tour 11 homes in the area. Wright Plus did their own research on each house and while processing the Provincial House collection,
Wright Plus and the “Fireproof” House Read More »
Fr. Peter Rodríguez (1931–2004) moved to the United States in his twenties to study English for Claretian missions in Japan. Instead, the soft-spoken, scholarly Spaniard was ordained in Chicago, taught briefly at St. Jude Seminary, then devoted the rest of his life to Spanish-speaking ministry in Chicago. Assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church in
Un Padre Muy Padre: The Life and Work of Fr. Peter Rodríguez Read More »
In the early 1960s, the Claretian Eastern Province began to investigate the possibility of beginning their own college program. Despite the United States Province having been split into the U.S. Eastern Province and U.S. Western Province nearly ten years previously, the General Government had decreed that all Claretian seminarians in the country would continue to
Ad experimentum: The Claretians at St. Louis University Read More »
In the late 1960s, the Claretian Western Province was looking to expand their ministries and embrace the tide of change sweeping Catholicism on a global level. It was suggested by Fr. Bernard O’Connor to try Team Ministry, a new concept of pastoral care that was directly developed as an outgrowth of Vatican II. When the
Team Ministry in the Rockies Read More »
In the late 1950s, the Claretian Eastern Province was looking to reinvigorate their approach to Claretian brother vocations. Enrollment in the program for brothers at the Claretian minor seminaries had declined, a reflection of the trend in seminaries across the country. The Claretians in the East decided that the best way to encourage Claretian brother
Atop the Knoll: A New Approach to Educating Claretian Brothers Read More »
While working on materials from the Claretian House of Studies in Washington D.C. last year, a couple lines of correspondence caught my eye: “I heard from California that Fr. Montoya was on Grouch[o] Marx’s TV program during the week! The name of the Claretian Fathers was heard from coast to coast. The guys came home
You Bet Your Life! Read More »
In the early hours of June 30, 1991, a group of cursillistas in a building adjoining Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in San Antonio awoke to the sound of breaking glass. An arsonist who had been targeting houses of worship across the city had broken in and set fire to the sacristy. While firefighters were
A Work of Heart: A History of the Painted Walls of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church Read More »
Four months after the Second World War had been brought to America’s shores at Pearl Harbor, Fr. Leonard Cuellar CMF received permission to enlist in the US Army as a chaplain. His first letters from bases in the United States paint a picture of a rapidly militarizing country. He wrote from Pendleton Air Field, a
“A thousand and one things have happened”: Letters from a WWII Chaplain Read More »
With the Feast of St. Jude fast approaching, let’s explore how Danny Thomas, the affable entertainer and early television personality, became the best known of St. Jude’s devotees. Raised in a Lebanese Catholic family in Toledo, Thomas had witnessed personal vows to saints. His own mother, when faced with a sick baby, got on her
Danny Thomas, St. Jude, and the Claretian Connection Read More »