The Franciscan Center of Baltimore was given a renovated dinning room and basic infrastructure for the Culinary Training Kitchen in 2022. The Franciscan Center has been a cornerstone in Baltimore, delivering vital services such as food, clothing, emergency aid, counseling and technology training. (Courtesy Franciscan Center)

Franciscan Sister Joanne Schatzlein, director of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in Wisconsin, called it “truly a gift of God” that the Ellicott City-based Our Lady of the Angels Province of the Conventual Franciscans has taken over sponsorship of the Franciscan Center in Baltimore from the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi.

The transfer was announced Nov. 29 to coincide with the feast of All Saints of the Seraphic Order, the 800th anniversary of the signing of the 1223 Rule of St. Francis which marked the founding of the Franciscan order.

The Franciscan Center was founded in 1968 by the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore, a women’s religious community that merged with the Milwaukee-based Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in 2001.

Since its establishment, the Franciscan Center has been a cornerstone in Baltimore, delivering vital services such as food, clothing, emergency aid, counseling and technology training. The approach aims to assist individuals in achieving self-sufficiency.

The decision of Our Lady of the Angels Province to assume sponsorship followed an invitation from the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. The Conventual Franciscans, an order of priests and brothers, embraced the invitation, as the sisters gradually divest themselves from certain communities.

“Our brothers’ overwhelming hospitality and their assurance that we will remain part of their family into the future affirm that we are entrusting the Franciscan Center to the right group of Franciscans,” Sister Joanne told the Catholic Review.

To commemorate the transition, a special Mass was held at the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City Nov. 29.

“We think it’s a perfect fit for our friars and are really looking forward to working there,” said Conventual Franciscan Father Michael Heine, minister provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province.

The Conventual Franciscans have been actively involved in the center’s activities in the past, supplying fresh produce from Little Portion Farm in Ellicott City.

Angela Hall, assistant executive director of the Franciscan Center, highlighted the 24-Hours of Cooking and Serving program, where 4,000 fresh meals were prepared and delivered to various communities in need.

This culinary event extended its reach beyond the Franciscan Center, providing meals to homeless encampments, winter shelters, senior homes and selected local nonprofits. The center’s staff and volunteers worked together to deliver meals at midnight to places such as hospital emergency rooms, police stations, fire departments and public works teams. Thirty chefs, each contributing at least two hours, prepared a variety of dishes, including Italian-style meatloaf, jerk-roasted turkey, coffee-rubbed roasted brisket, and brown-sugar-glazed pit ham.

The Franciscan Center has undergone significant renovations and physical improvements in recent years, including an indoor dining room, a client choice pantry, a training kitchen, a computer lab, an education center, a clothing intake room and a new Mace Street entrance, representing a significant evolution.

The Franciscan Center, sponsored primarily for spiritual support by the friars, will maintain its independent operation. Father Heine emphasized the friars’ goal of upholding the Franciscan spirit, contributing to the board and cultivating a stronger connection with the broader Franciscan community.

“We’re really excited, and the friars are very excited that we’re doing this,” he said.

Email Adriana Montes at amontes@CatholicReview.org

Courtesy: The Catholic Review

2023 marked the 800th anniversary when St. Francis showed the simplicity of our God in Greccio, Italy, with the first Nativity scene. We have scenes from Greccio celebrations across the Our Lady of the Angels Province, many included live animals.

Archbishop Curley High School, Baltimore, Md.

Blessed Sacrament Church, Burlington, N.C.

Assumption Church, Syracuse, N.Y.

Most Holy Trinity – St. Mary Church, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Our Lady of Hope Church, Coal Township, Penn.

Shrine of St. Anthony, Ellicott City, Md.

St. Adalbert Parish, Queens, N.Y.

St. Casimir Church, Baltimore, Md.

St. Francis High School, Athol Springs

St. Ignatius the Martyr, Ottawa, Canada

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Ottawa, Ontario.

St. Paul Parish, Kensington, Connecticut.

St. Casimir Church in Canton, Md., is one of the sites available where Catholics can pray before a Franciscan parish Nativity to receive a plenary indulgence during the Christmas season. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Catholics will have the opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence from Dec. 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to Feb. 2, 2024, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple.

The key to this spiritual privilege lies in prayer before a Nativity scene at a Franciscan church, a tradition inspired by St. Francis himself, who crafted the inaugural Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy, in 1223, symbolizing the profound mystery of the Incarnation.

During the feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4, the faithful gathered at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy. The occasion honored the beloved Italian saint and the 800th anniversary of the approval of the Rule of St. Francis, alongside the inception of the Nativity scene in Greccio.

As part of the celebration of this Franciscan centenary, the Conference of the Franciscan Family sought the approval of Pope Francis for a plenary indulgence by “visiting the churches run by Franciscan families throughout the world and stopping in prayer in front of the Nativity scenes set up there.”

The Apostolic Penitentiary welcomed the request, and Pope Francis granted the faithful the opportunity to receive this indulgence under the usual conditions.

Expressing St. Francis’s deep affinity for the Incarnation, Franciscan Father Michael Heine, minister provincial of the Franciscan Friars Conventual of Our Lady of the Angels Province, noted that St. Francis aimed to convey to the people of a small Italian town that Jesus, in his humble birth, was poor — fully one of us. This portrayal, according to Father Heine, “offers comfort, knowing that we have a God who understands what we’re going through.”

Father Heine emphasized that even though they do not typically set up Nativity scenes that early in Advent, the indulgence applies to Franciscan-staff churches in Maryland, including St. Casimir in Canton and the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City. Father Heine highlighted that the St. Anthony Shrine building itself replicates the sacred convent where St. Francis is buried.

Both St. Casimir Catholic Church in Canton and St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church across from Patterson Park fall under the pastoral care of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Conventual Our Lady of the Angels Province.

Additionally, parishioners are invited to visit and pray before these Nativity scenes in the St. Stanislaus Kostka chapel on the corner of O’Donnell Street and South Kenwood Avenue from Dec.  8 through Dec. 24, from 30 minutes before the 8 a.m. daily Mass until 4 p.m. on Mondays-Thursdays and 2 p.m. on Fridays.

The Nativity scene at St. Casimir Catholic Church will be blessed at the Christmas Vigil Mass Dec. 24 and will be available for prayer 30 minutes before and after all Masses throughout the Christmas season. The Nativity scene at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church will be available for prayer 30 minutes before all Masses beginning Sunday, Dec. 17, while the Nativity scene at St. Anthony in Ellicott City will be available for prayer inside the chapel daily 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

At St. Ambrose in Park Heights, staffed by Capuchin Franciscans, the Nativity scene will be set up and available for prayer starting on Christmas.

Parishioners who intend to seek a plenary indulgence can find the location of a Franciscan-affiliated church near them on an interactive map on the Secular Franciscan website, further highlighting that “Those who are sick or unable to participate physically can equally benefit from the gift of the plenary indulgence, offering their sufferings to the Lord or carrying out practices of piety.”

St. Casimir Church in Canton is one of the sites available where Catholics can pray before a Franciscan parish Nativity to receive a plenary indulgence during the Christmas season. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

What is a plenary indulgence?

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due for sins committed. A plenary indulgence is the removal of all punishment due to sin. Indulgences can always be applied either to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but they cannot be applied to other persons living on earth.

Conditions to receive a plenary indulgence in all cases:

• Detachment from all sins, even venial.
• A plenary indulgence must always be accompanied by sacramental confession, holy Communion and prayer for the pope’s intentions.
• Sacramental confession and receiving the Eucharist can occur up to about 20 days before or after the act performed to receive a plenary indulgence.
• It is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed.

Published in The Catholic Review