Faithful can receive a plenary indulgence for visiting local Franciscan worship sites; many planning special jubilee year events
SOUTHFIELD — Local Franciscans are excited by Pope Leo XIV’s declaration of a Jubilee Year of St. Francis, commemorating the 800th anniversary of the death of the saintly friar and the spirituality he inspired.
The friars at Transfiguration Parish in Southfield are hosting a series of events about the life of St. Francis and various aspects of Franciscan spirituality, beginning with a presentation on “The Franciscan Worldview” by Fr. Jeffrey Scheeler, OFM, from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 12.
“It was a blessing that Pope Leo called this year a jubilee year of St. Francis, so we wanted to capitalize on that and use that as an opportunity. If they come, people can get a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, and so that’s great, too, but we just wanted to look at various aspects of the life of St. Francis, spread out over on monthly basis,” Fr. Scheeler told Detroit Catholic.
The presentations will include St. Francis’ care for God’s creation, films about the life of St. Francis, musical tributes to St. Francis, the stigmata of St. Francis, and the intellectual contributions the Franciscan order has made to the Church over the past eight centuries.
“People might not come to every event, but we hope people will find one that really interests them and helps them experience who St. Francis was, what he was about, and the gift he was to the Church,” Fr. Scheeler said.
As part of the jubilee year, Catholics can receive a plenary indulgence by making a pilgrimage "to any Franciscan conventual church, or place of worship in any part of the world named after St. Francis or connected to him for any reason," according to Pope Leo's decree. The usual conditions of sacramental confession, reception of the Eucharist, and prayers for the intentions of the pope also apply.
The Archdiocese of Detroit has three parishes named for St. Francis: St. Francis of Assisi-St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Ray Township, St. Francis D’Assisi-St. Hedwig Parish in Detroit and San Francesco Parish in Clinton Township. In addition, Franciscans minister in a number of other places locally, including Transfiguration Parish in Southfield, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel in Livonia on the grounds of the Felician Sisters’ campus, St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit, the Capuchin Retreat Center in Washington Township, and St. Joseph Chapel and Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is staffed by Terra Sancta Ministries and Fr. Alex Kratz, OFM, spiritual director of Terra Sancta.
There already is a popular perception of St. Francis in the common consciousness, Fr. Scheeler said, that of a humble friar who cared for nature and lived life in simple poverty, but he hopes people who visit Transfiguration get a more complete picture of the 13th-century saint.
“One of the things that I appreciate about St. Francis is that he had a tremendous sense that everything in creation was related,” Fr. Scheeler said. “He saw all people as brothers and sisters, but also that we have a relationship with the world. In his poem, ‘The Canticle of Creation,’ he welcomes Sister Death and Brother Fire. In a world where we are so polarized and divided, I think it makes perfect sense to have a Year of St. Francis to communicate a vision where we are all connected.
“Secondly, I hope people really focus on St. Francis' devotion to the Incarnation, that God was made man,” Fr. Scheeler added. “It’s why he started the devotion to the creche, where God became human. He was really struck that God would become a human being, recalling the humility of God, that God humbled himself to become one of us.”
St. Joseph Chapel and the Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Pontiac have two first-class relics of St. Francis: one for public veneration and another for veneration upon request, Fr. Kratz told Detroit Catholic.
Throughout the year, the chapel will celebrate various feast days related to St. Francis and the Franciscan order.
“We also have his statue in the church with flowers next to it all year long,” Fr. Kratz said. “We’re open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with Mass at noon, so people can come to celebrate Mass with us.”
Terra Sancta, Latin for “Holy Ground,” also has Stations of the Cross on the grounds, a callback to St. Francis’ promotion of the Stations for Christians who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Beyond visiting the shrine in Pontiac, particularly on St. Francis’ feast day, Oct. 4, Fr. Kratz suggested people look into the writings of St. Francis, particularly “The Second Letter to the Faithful,” which he directed to the priests and laity who joined the Third Order of Franciscans.
“His writings are pretty amazing,” Fr. Kratz said. “Most of what he wrote was at the end of his life, when he returned from the Holy Land, when he was going through a crisis. He wanted to reach out to his brothers and other people, so he started writing to priests and lay faithful, leaders in the Franciscan order, implementing a reform of the Church regarding respect for the Eucharist, the cleanliness of churches and calling people to live penitent lives.”
In a time of growing global strife, including the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Fr. Kratz said now is the perfect time to delve into the wisdom of St. Francis and the need for brotherly love in the world.
“I believe Pope Leo put in his decree the need for charity, love of neighbor and certainly love for God, and a zeal for the faith, the faith that Jesus taught the apostles and has been passed down to us over the centuries," Fr. Kratz said.
“The fullness of the Gospel centers around peacemaking,” Fr. Kratz added. “We have several wars going on in our world, and it’s pretty distressing for people. We’re not going to be able to solve wars on a local level, but we can do what we can at our local level to promote peacemaking, care for the common good, and to accept our responsibility to care for the people around us.”
For those who really want to delve into Franciscan spirituality, Fr. Kratz suggested prayerfully discerning a vocation as a Third Order Franciscan — also known as Secular Franciscans — who meet monthly at St. Joseph Chapel to pray with and for one another.
“St. Francis believed that God revealed to him that the way to live the Gospel life was in fraternity, and that’s true not only of friars or religious sisters like the Poor Clares or the Felicians and Bernardines, but also laypeople who joined the Third Order. They don’t profess or take vows, but they do profess to a rule to meet monthly and pray together as a canonical order with the Franciscan family.”
The Jubilee Year of St. Francis is also a time for professed Franciscans to recommit themselves to the charisms of their order and to share the fruits of their religious life with the rest of the world, Fr. Scheeler said.
“This becomes a moment of renewal for us to recommit and say, ‘We’re grateful that we’ve been called by God to live in the spirit of St. Francis,’” Fr. Scheeler said. “It’s all something we do together as brothers, and now something that will bring the whole community together.”
