On February 10, 2018, over fifty friars gathered for the funeral Mass of Friar Donald KOS, former Vicar and Procurator of the Order (OFM Conv.), at Our Lady of the Cross Parish in Holyoke, MA, USA.
Minister General Friar Marco TASCA presided. Others present included the Most Reverend Gianfranco Girotti, O.F.M. Conv., Regent Emeritus of the Apostolic Penitentiary; Friar Jude WINKLER, the Assistant General for the Conventual Franciscan Federation (CFF); Friar James McCURRY, the Minister Provincial of the Province of Our Lady of the Angels in the USA, of which Friar Donald KOS was a member; and Friar Michael ZIELKE, the Minister Provincial of the Province of St. Bonaventure in the USA.
Friar Raymond BORKOWSKI, Friar Donald’s classmate, had preached the night before at the prayer vigil in the church, and Friar James McCURRY preached at the funeral Mass.
Over and over again, the friars spoke of how Friar Donald was a simple, humble friar who served the Order and the Church throughout his fifty-nine years of service in Rome. He had only recently returned to his Mother Province due to illness.
There will be a memorial Mass for Friar Donald at the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles, in Rome, on Thursday, February 15, at 6:30 p.m.
Friar Jude WINKLER, Assistant General for the CFF