Capuchin Poor Clares

In 1985, Brother Ronald Giannone, OFM Cap., Fr. Thomas Hanley, personal representative of the Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, and two Poor Clare nuns from the monastery in Langhorne, Pennsylvania visited the capuchin monastery in Uruapan, Michoacan, (Mexico). They met with Abbess, Mother Teresa Cacho, and with the President of the Federation of St. Francis and St. Clare, Mother María Inés Cacho. Bro. Ronald and his companions traveled to Mexico with the intention of asking the Sisters in Uruapan to consider the founding of a monastery in Wilmington, Delaware, where the capuchin friars have The Ministry of Caring, a service program for the poor.            As a follow up to the visit, Bro. Ronald wrote to Mother Teresa Cacho with the formal request for a new foundation from the monastery in Uruapan. Mother Teresa Cacho turned down his request. She felt that her sisters, though large in number, were too young to assume such an important new mission. ...

     Our presence in the diocese of Pueblo is the fruit of persevering prayer on the part of a bishop who knew how to wait for God’s time. After fourteen years of patient waiting, he finally managed to get a contemplative community to his diocese. On June 14, 1987, his Excellency Bishop Arthur N. Tofoya of the diocese of Pueblo, Colorado visited our community in Amarillo, Texas for the first time. He was seeking the presence of a community of Capuchin Poor Clares for his diocese.       The sisters’ mission would be to support with prayer the pastoral ministry of the bishop and of the priests and religious. The Capuchin Poor Clares had come to the diocese of Amarillo in 1981. There were not enough sisters to begin a new monastery. So his petition was referred to the Federation of Capuchin Poor Clares in Mexico. During the next three years, the president of the Mexica n federation, Mother Inés Cacho visited the diocese of Pueblo twice. She held out t...

     Establishing a community of Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters in the Mid-America Province was a dream that began at the Provincial Chapter of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in 1986. At that time, then Provincial Minister Charles Chaput and his council were asked by the friars to actively pursue the establishment of a community of the Second Order.        Upon hearing that the Capuchins were trying to establish a community of Capuchin Poor Clares in Mid-America, Archbishop J. Francis Stafford of Denver (now Cardinal in Rome), contacted Fr. Charles Chaput (now Archbishop of Denver, expressing interest in having the sisters establish their community within the Archdiocese of Denver. In 1987, our community in Irapuato, Guanajuto, Mexico, agreed to establish a monastery in Denver. The canonical procedures were initiated to arrange for the new foundation. The President of the Federation and the Abbessof the monastery in Irapuato, came to Denver to meet w...

     In 1980, the Community of Capuchin Poor Clares of Guadalajara, Mexico, was visited by Fr. David G. Zumaya, a priest of the diocese of San Antonio, Texas originally from Mexico. They told him that they were hoping to establish the Order in the United States. He mentioned that he had some funds which could be used to aid the desired foundation. Fr. Zumaya spoke with Bishop Leroy Mathiesen, recently consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Amarillo, and discovered that the bishop was very interested in having a contemplative community in his diocese. He asked Fr. Zumaya to extend an invitation to the sisters in Guadalajara to consider a foundation in his diocese. Mother María de Jesus Ibarra, President of the Federation of Capuchin Poor Clares to which the monastery in Guadalajara belonged, wrote to Bishop Mathiesen to say that the sisters had received his invitation with great joy and was very interested.       On January 8, 1981, Bishop Mathiesen w...

     In the U.S., the Capuchin Poor Clares have monasteries in Alamo (TX), Amarillo (TX), Denver (CO), Pueblo (CO) and Wilmington (DE).             The Federation of Capuchin Sisters of the United States of America, "Our Lady of the Angels Fedaration", is currently animated by:  President: Sister Teresa de Jesús Angeles, Denver Monastery, CO  1st Councilor: Sister Elizabeth Flores, Pueblo Monastery, CO 2nd Counselor: Sr. Luz María Leyva, Alamo Monastery, TX  Bursar: Sr. Clara Cuevas, Wilmington Monastery, DE

St. Joseph & St. Rita Monastery - Alamo, Texas       Our monastery bears the name of Saint Joseph and Saint Rita because the Church is dedicated to Saint Joseph and a great part of the monastery has been built with donations from some benefactors who have a great devotion to Saint Rita. For many years, Bishop Raymond Peña of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas had been asking the northern federation of Our Father Saint Francis and the Immaculate Conception for a new monastery in his diocese.     The community of Zamora, Michoacán (Mexico) accepted the project. On May 26, 2003, we arrived in Brownsville. We were there for six weeks; then we moved to Raymondsville, Texas. There we stayed more than two years, living in the rectory of Saint Anthony Parish. Meanwhile the new monastery was being built in Alamo, Texas.      The bishop wanted it to be in Alamo because Alamo is the city in the center of Brownsville diocese. While the building of ...

Las recientes normativas del Santo Padre y de la CIVCSVA exigen que cada monasterio de monjas pertenezca a una Federación. Los mismos documentos hablan de la importancia, la naturaleza y la función de estas federaciones, en vistas a ayudar a mantener vivo el carisma del Instituto, el cual, por muchos motivos, parece tener una fuerte disminución de sus miembros en la actualidad. 

Considero oportuno hablar en sobre el rol del Asistente Religioso de una Federación de Monjas de modo que se entienda el porqué he decidido comenzar este blog en el cual presentaré algunos aspectos de la Vida y de la identidad del las Hermanas Clarisas Capuchinas de Estados Unidos de América. En la Constitución Apostólica "Vultum Dei Quaerere" (VDQ), sobre la vida contemplativa femenina, emanada por el Papa Francisco el 29 de junio de 2016, el Papa pretende dar orientaciones jurídicas más precisas, de modo que se pueda poner en relieve y, a su vez, proteger este esencial carisma de la Iglesia. Para hacer operativo este documento, la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada y Las Sociedades de Vida Apostólica (CIVCSVA) publicó la "Cor Orans" , una Instrucción aplicativa de la mencionada VDQ. Hablando sobre la figura y el rol del Asistente Religioso la Cor Orans, en los números 149 al 155, establece lo siguiente: El Asistente de la Federación...