Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit mark ninth year in the Southwest

There aren’t many who would embrace a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience to serve an often-forgotten people in one of the hottest places in the United States.

But that’s just what one of the Church’s newest religious orders has committed itself to do.

As of June 29, 2024, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit started its ninth year as a religious order in the Diocese of Phoenix, committed to serving the diocese’s Native Americans in 11 missions on four reservations.

The Friars’ story began with the Franciscan friars Third Order Regular (TOR). Seven of these Franciscans discerned a call to go serve the poor and marginalized in the American Southwest, particularly among the indigenous population. They contacted then-Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted, and he invited them to come out on a trial basis, so that both could discern whether this was truly God’s will.

That discussion was providential.

Bishop Olmsted recalls praying earnestly at the time for something like the Friars because “the chaplain we had for the reservations was coming up to be 75 years of age. He was a religious, and his superior was calling him back home. I was praying that the Lord would send us another chaplain.”

At one point, an entire Franciscan community had served the 11 missions, but they had to leave in the 1970s, due to a lack of vocations and resources to keep the mission school going.

Seven TORs–five priests and two brothers–arrived in the diocese on May 13, 2015, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. They were given an old, dilapidated convent in which to live, which they immediately began to fix up, doing much of the work themselves.

They also set about rebuilding St. Anthony Mission Church in Sacaton after a fire destroyed it in 2000. With much work from many people, the church was redone and is a pretty church constructed in the mission style.

But the Friars’ first priority was working with the Native population. People had been going without the sacraments and were also suffering from poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and other problems that aren’t easily overcome.

Perhaps the worst part was that Indigenous were virtually invisible, says Fr. Antony Tinker, the Friars’ superior. The realization of how underserved the community was didn’t hit the group until they arrived in the area. “And meeting a lot of the people in Phoenix,” he notes, “who didn’t even recognize the Catholic community here on the reservations, didn’t know about our school, didn’t know about our missions.”

And, indeed, that community is substantial. While the Salt Rock Reservation is roughly 25% Catholic, the Ak-Chin and St. Lucy in Gila Bend Reservations are close to 100%. On the Gila Bend Reservation, Catholics number between 50 and 75% of the population.

At Bapchule, Arizona, there is even a school run by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity called St. Peter’s. Prior to the Friars’ coming, it was K-8, but recently it has expanded into a K-10 school. The dream is to soon have it become a K-12 school, but that takes greater financial resources than are currently available.

Whereas many in the Phoenix area weren’t aware of the Friars’ mission, the same couldn’t be said for the Native population.

“When we first arrived here in Phoenix, people were saying, ‘Welcome home,’” says Fr Tinker, “because the Franciscans were the ones who first brought the faith here to the Gila River where we serve.”

The order’s newest priest is excited about what he sees and what could be in store. Ordained in June, Fr. Elijah Delello knew some of the founders when he studied at Steubenville. After graduation, he served as a FOCUS missionary at Louisiana State University, where he began to discern a calling to the priesthood with the Friars. He went on a retreat with them and felt he had found a home.

“I haven’t looked back since,” he says. “It’s been a wonderful eight years.”

Asked what attracted him to the community, he notes, “I think a lot of it was the way that they were doing ministry. So just really believing in the power of the Holy Spirit, really believing that the Lord really wants to encounter people where they’re at. Just watching how people would have encounters with Jesus in their preaching and even just in their personalities and their brotherhood.”

Coming to Arizona initially presented something of a culture shock.

“I grew up in New Jersey, so the only exposure I had to Native Americans was what I learned in my history classes,” he says. “Coming over here and just seeing that places like reservations are in the States and the things that people go through here and what they have to deal with [prompted me] to kind of open myself up more to understand a little bit better what things they may or may not have and to connect with them at a deeper level.”

For the order’s next seminarian in line for the priesthood, Br. Paul Graupmann, the culture shock was almost non-existent. He grew up in South Dakota, which has many Indian reservations, and he had many indigenous friends as a boy.

Asked what attracted him to the Friars, he responds, “I would say that initially seeing men who weren’t necessarily that old, but were just on fire for the Lord. But in particular with a real desire to evangelize. Which was like really attractive.”

He continues:

And then also just a particular love for the poor and the poor in spirit, just people maybe who generally get forgotten in society writ large. It’s just a real desire in me to minister to people like that. And it’s kind of twofold, not only like the evangelization aspect of it and like this fire for the gospel, but then also a real desire for intimacy and union with God. [The Friars] were just really attractive.

For someone like Br. Paul, who is interested in discerning a vocation with the Franciscans, there is a formation program. Incoming men start out for a year as postulants.

If both sides feel it’s God’s will, the postulants become novices for a year. It is a year of very intense prayer and discernment. According to Fr. Tinker, “They receive a habit. They receive a new name for that year. And then if they feel so called after that year, they would take vows. And if they’re called to the priesthood, they begin their seminary studies.”

So far, the order has attracted four seminarians and one man who does not feel called to the priesthood. These men replaced the five founders who left after discerning the life of the desert missionary was not for them.

Asked what the hopes are for the future of the order, Fr. Tinker says one goal is to attract enough vocations to staff the other missions and schools they hope to create and staff. Maybe someday, they might even find a presence in the Diocese of Gallup, N.M., the only diocese in the country founded expressly to serve the Native American people.

As was mentioned before, they also want to turn St. Peter’s into a full K-12 school, which will give all Native students the same access to quality education that pupils at parochial schools enjoy.

Reflecting on the order he helped start, Bishop Olmsted is very pleased.

“I feel like the need we had for the evangelization of our Native peoples was a very genuine need,” he says, “and the fact that they’ve come and that they’re meeting that need is providential. The response of the people has confirmed that discernment. They have been welcomed, and now we’re seeing good fruits among them. I’m delighted at what I see, and I am hopeful about the future.

• To learn more about the Friars, visit BecomeFire.Faith.