Work, pray, learn

Students preach by their deeds in Jamaica

BY TONI CASHNELLI

This Sunday, Roger Lopez will take to the pulpit at St. Mary’s in Bloomington, Ill., to ask for money. At Transfiguration Parish in Southfield, Mich., Colin King will do the same.

Technically, they’re doing mission appeals. But there is more to it than that.

Roger, Colin, and Richard Goodin are the prime movers behind Jamaica With Friars, a program that gives college students the chance to grow in faith by helping those in need. It’s the “in giving that we receive” part of the Peace Prayer brought to life in the Diocese of Montego Bay, where want is keenly felt by the hungry, the homeless and the hopeless.

Above, building homes, building faith in Jamaica; left, Richard Goodin and student helpers; below, Roger Lopez makes a new friend.

Growing in faith

Last year, “Richard and I were at the Newman Center and Colin was doing his STiP year [in Jamaica]. The Province said they were willing to link up with the Newman Center and support it.” A mission appeal in Bloomington helped them raise enough to send seven students and a music minister from the Newman Center on the mission trip – and donate $3,000 for outreach efforts in Negril. “Colin being down there handled a lot on the ground,” Roger says. “But instead of just going down and doing work, we wanted to incorporate an element of faith formation,” adding Scripture studies and encouraging students to examine their lives as Christians. “They really enjoyed it; it was a very powerful experience,” one they shared widely with friends, families and fellow students.

“This year I did a lot more advertising,” Roger says. As a result, 18 students applied for the December 13-22 mission trip. “We originally wanted to put a cap on it at nine, so Colin and I and the guys in Jamaica prayed about it.” They wondered, “How do you decide who goes?” Is it the ones most active at the Newman Center? Should seniors have priority? “We looked at applications to make sure we saw a genuineness and a desire to work” and finally decided, “You know what? If God wants really wants this to happen, it’ll happen. We’ll work really hard and trust in God.”

In addition to Bloomington, they requested time at Transfiguration Parish and at Sacred Heart in Peoria, where Colin spoke last week. “We asked the Province to donate a grant of $4,000, and the Newman Center raised a grant of $4,000,” says Roger, who designed an impressive insert for parish bulletins. “What we’ve decided is as friars we would handle the bulk of fund-raising. We’re asking students to raise $400.” Many UIC students, the first generation to attend college, are from low- to middle-income families, “so it’s not feasible for them to raise $1,200; it just can’t happen. They’re working, or their parents are working multiple jobs.” With a goal of $20,000, there is enough in hand for airline tickets. “Right now we’re raising money to cover lodging, as well as food.”

Rich in diversity

Of the 18 students accepted, three dropped out because of other demands. The eclectic group of 15 includes nine men and six women, from undergraduates to post-grad students. The oldest is 32; the youngest, 18. “We have two dental students in their final year. They are black, white, Hispanic, a really great

group.” And all are aware “they are representing the Church and the people who support them.”

This year, “We’re doing a lot more preparation for our faith formation program,” Roger says. “We’re trying to broaden the experience of what a mission trip is.” And you can’t put a price tag on experience.

(Visit the Jamaica With Friars Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jamaicawithfriars. E-mail jamaicawithfriars@gmail.com for information on donations. Checks can be written to “Franciscan Friars” at Blessed Giles Friary.)

Cemetery was part of

the lifeThe cemetery was a playground for the Huetten children. of the family

BY KENAN FRESON, OFM

Your newsletter article on our departed friars, with pictures of Adam Farkas visiting various gravesites at St. Mary Cemetery in St. Bernard, created a flood of memories for me.  Some are clear; others, getting hazy.

The maternal side of my family focused around St. Mary Cemetery. My maternal grandparents lived in the very large frame house on the property.ﾠ My grandfather, John Huetten (1884-1936), was the sexton, as the principal caretaker was called back then. Grandpa and Grandma Huetten had three daughters:  Collette, Margaret, and Antoinette (my mother).  The main floor of the house had a very high ceiling and long center stairway in the middle.  One of those small bell towers topped the house somewhere above the stairway.  I recall a very long rope hung from the bell and rolled up at the bottom of the stairway.

The Huetten family plot is at the first intersection inside the original main gate.  Now a large “Welcome to St. Mary Cemetery” sign blocks part of a beautiful holly tree and the family markers.  This plot is opposite one of our large Franciscan plots. The “Huetten” plot is where my Huetten family grandparents, my two aunts, and my parents are buried.  My brother and I have a burial spot there, too.

My mom and her two sisters had the whole cemetery as their playground.  There were much more wooded and empty fields in the cemetery back them.   Mom related how one day she fell into one of the newly-dug graves.  Her calls for help attracted the family dog, who came to her rescue and went for help.

A couple of years after my grandfather’s death, my mom married Leonard Freson and they moved into 4211 Zetta Ave. in St. Bernard.  After her marriage my Aunt Margaret moved into a home on Delmar near the former OLA.  She took in my grandmother.

Aunt Margaret had a difficult life.  She had two boys. Both are buried next to her. Ronnie was born and died in 1935.  The second, Johnny, was born in 1938, two years before me.  Johnny and I were just beginning to play together more when he developed cancer and died at 10 years of age.  This was the first relative I recall who passed away.  The visitation was in my aunt’s “front room”, as it was called. I remember standing at his casket.

On a happier note, my aunt gave me my first driving lessons....and what better place with all kinds of slopes, curves, and long roads than St. Mary Cemetery.

My dad’s parents are buried not far across the road from the original friar lots at this entrance. Both passed away before I was born.ﾠ But because of them I have had 11 or 12 aunts and uncles.  Somewhere in this generation, one of the uncles married a Native American woman and added a new blood line.

Most of us have more clothes than we need, and many that we seldom or never wear. Recycling our unwanted clothing is an important part of being eco-friendly. According to the Sierra Club, the average American throws away 68 pounds of textiles each year and 80 percent of items Americans own get used less than once a month. A single cotton T-shirt takes 700 gallons of water to produce, from seed to final product.ﾠ So it’s important to recycle clothing and other items rather than throw them in the trash. When we donate clothing, etc., to St. Vincent de Paul or Goodwill, we are also making it possible for people to purchase our used items at significantly discounted prices. This benefits those

with limited incomes as well as the environmentalists who prefer buying used items rather than new.ﾠ Goodwill does all that they can to make donated items sellable. But even items that are not in good shape are sold to salvage companies for rags, etc. So your donations to Goodwill will most likely be kept out of the landfill regardless of their condition.

– Donna Graham, OSF

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• Starting Nov. 17, you’ll see a familiar face on billboards at more than a dozen Cincinnati-area locations. The Archdiocese is using a photo of friar Luke Simon to promote its 2014 Retirement Fund for Religious campaign. Look for Luke at W. Third St. and the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, River Rd. and State St., Westwood Ave. and Queen City, Bridgetown Rd. and Harrison Ave., St. Rt. 128 and 1-74, North Bend and Kipling Ave., Winton Rd. and Compton, Reading Rd. and Seymour, Montgomery Rd. and Lester Rd., Blue Ash Rd. and Sycamore, Kemper and Reading Rd., Madison Rd. and Red Bank, St. Rt. 28 and I-275, Wooster and Red Bank, Beechmont Ave. and Eight Mile Rd. Billboards will be up through Dec. 14.

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