{"id":97638,"date":"2026-05-11T19:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/prima-parte-del-capitolo-ordinario-della-provincia-di-san-bonaventura-negli-stati-uniti\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:03:19","slug":"prima-parte-del-capitolo-ordinario-della-provincia-di-san-bonaventura-negli-stati-uniti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/prima-parte-del-capitolo-ordinario-della-provincia-di-san-bonaventura-negli-stati-uniti\/","title":{"rendered":"Ordinary Chapter of the Province of St.\u00a0Bonaventure in the USA, Part\u00a0I"},"content":{"rendered":"

From April 27 to May 1, 2026, the solemnly professed friars of the Province of St. Bonaventure in the USA (SB) met at the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, also known as Marytown, in Libertyville Illinois, USA, to conduct the first part of their Provincial Chapter. The Chapter occurs every four years. The friars were joined by the successor of St. Francis of Assisi, the 120th<\/sup> Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, Friar Carlos TROVARELLI, and the Assistant General for the Conventual Franciscan Federation (CFF), Friar Joseph WOOD, who is also a member of SB Province.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forty Capitulars attended the first part of the Chapter. The Chapter began with a Mass invoking the Holy Spirit. Next, friars and professionals from various commissions and ministry sites presented reports and answered questions from those gathered. There was also ample time to divide into smaller discussion groups and move from table to table addressing various important topics and sharing openly with one another in an atmosphere of fraternity and earnest self-reflection. The feedback from these discussions was summarized and the Provincial Definitory will use that summary to draft the Provincial Four-Year Plan, which will be presented during the second part of the Chapter in July.
\nAs per usual in SB Province, the Capitulars voted for the Minister Provincial by postal ballot prior to the Chapter. The votes were counted on December 2, 2025, and Friar Paul Joseph LANGEVIN was re-elected on the first ballot. Therefore, during the first part of the Chapter, in the presence of the assembled Capitulars, Friar Paul Joseph made his profession of faith and swore his oath of office into the hands of the Minister General, Friar Carlos TROVARELLI. Friar Carlos then addressed the friars and Friar Paul Joseph followed with words of his own, encouraging the friars and rededicating himself to serve them. The Friars came forward one-by-one to declare their obedience to the Minister Provincial and to offer him congratulations and best wishes. This is Friar Paul Joseph\u2019s second and last term as Minister Provincial, he will lead the Province for the next four years.
\nOn Thursday, April 30, the Capitulars met to vote on the members of the Provincial Definitory (Council). All of the names were individually proposed by the Minister Provincial and the friars voted on each by written ballot. Those elected to serve as members of the Province Definitory are Friars Paul Mary SCHNEIDER, Bernard Mary FONKALSRUD, Augustine KELLY, Alejandro LOPEZ, and Robert Mary COOK. The Minister Provincial proposed two names from the newly elected Definitory for the offices of Vicar Provincial and Provincial Secretary. Friar Paul Mary Schneider was elected Vicar Provincial and Friar Bernard Mary FONKALSRUD was elected Provincial Secretary. Friar Thomas FETZ was proposed and elected to serve as Provincial Econom. During Evening Prayer that day, the members of the Definitory were sworn in and the Vicar Provincial made his profession of faith and swore his oath of office into the hands of the Minister Provincial.
\nEach day of the Chapter, the friars prayed the Liturgy of the Hours in common and celebrated Mass together. Different friars were assigned various liturgical roles during the week, which created variety and opportunities for involvement. During Mass on Thursday, April 30, the friars recognized and celebrated some important jubilees, in particular, the ninety-sixth birthday and seventy-fifth anniversary of religious profession of Friar Martin SCHMITZ. There was a wonderful air of joy and fraternity as friars and friends gathered in the refectory, following the Mass, to share in a delicious meal prepared by the Marytown staff and to show love and appreciation for all the men who have served God, Our Lady, and the Church for so many years. Friar Martin SCHMITZ resides at St. Joseph\u2019s Home for the Elderly [in Palatine Illinois], operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor. He made the most of his trip to Marytown by visiting the heritage area of the gift shop where photos of his younger self could be found.<\/p>\n

Friar Bernard Mary FONKALSRUD, OFM Conv.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From April 27 to May 1, 2026, the solemnly professed friars of the Province of St. Bonaventure in the USA (SB) met at the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, also known as Marytown, in Libertyville Illinois, USA, to conduct the first part of their Provincial Chapter. The Chapter occurs every four years. The friars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,132,148],"tags":[186,742],"class_list":["post-97638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cff-en","category-federations","category-news","tag-chapter","tag-usa-sb-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97642,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97638\/revisions\/97642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}