Category Archives: Frankford

Help Our Capuchin Franciscan Brothers Purchase the St. Joachim Church Building

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St. Joachim has a rich legacy and history of service in our community.

As you know, the Capuchin Franciscans of the St. Augustine Province, have bought the former St. Joachim convent to house the Padre Pio Friary.

Father Tom Betz, OFM Cap, Provincial Minister, has made a commitment to staying in Frankford as long as they are able to purchase the Church building. As you know, it currently houses the Padre Pio Prayer Center which is open for worship as well as offering charitable services to those in need in our community. Purchasing it guarantees that the Capuchins have a place of worship for the Postulants and the community as well as solidifying their commitment here in Frankford.

Father Betz is seeking a one-time donation. I know your hearts our big; your bank accounts not so much, but please be as generous as you can. Any monies donated, if the sale of the Church building does not occur, will be returned.

Please mail your check, and do it today. Please don’t put it off. Send your donations to:

Province of St. Augustine
ATT: St. Joachim Fund
220 S. 37th Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Thank you and may God bless you richly for your generosity in Keep(ing) the Faith in Frankford.

 

O Lord, St. Joachim People Are Grateful and Blessed!

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Over the weekend, we learned the process will begin this month to relegate St. Joachim Church and rectory in Frankford to profane use and that will enable it to be put up for sale.

Here we are in July 2020 and if this were a regular year, we would be getting ready  for our St. Joachim & St. Ann(e) Annual Feast Day Mass! But we know this is not a regular year!

St. Joachim closed and merged with Holy Innocents in July 2013. We know that Mater Dolorosa closed and merged, too, as did St. Joan of Arc, which has remained as an active Worship Site. Ascension was already a part of Holy Innocents Parish.

My intent is not to bring up the pros and cons of the PPA or to rehash what was an injustice and a wrong for us and for so many of the faithful throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

I want to talk about what was right. St. Joachim is us; we are St. Joachim! We are the Catholic Church of Frankford. We are the Catholic community that stayed together – then and now. Keep the Faith in Frankford led the appeal effort to give us time – to do good in the community, to pray to Our Lady of the Locked Gates and to Padre Pio! Our prayers and so many others were heard.

It is unthinkable that a Church, especially in an urban diocese gets a new lease on life. But, thanks to the Capuchin Franciscans of the St. Augustine Province, we did. In 2016, they bought the former IHM convent for their, yes, Padre Pio Friary and have used the Church as the Padre Pio Prayer Center. What I am thinking is that Padre Pio may want them to annex the Church as well. St. Padre Pio, what do you think?

We are grateful to the Lord for these extra years of being able to celebrate Him within the walls of St. Joachim! He has blessed us, just like Lazarus, bringing us back from shuttered doors.

We’re grateful to former Archbishop Chaput! In the end, the Archbishop has to give the okay for whatever happens in the Archdiocese. Without his approval, the sale of the convent and arrival of the Capuchins would never have been. The Archbishop, too, had a daunting task when he arrived in Philadelphia. Thank you, Archbishop Chaput!

Father Tom (Higgins), Pastor, Holy Innocents Parish, from the beginning, was willing to meet with us and talk with us. We didn’t always get what we wanted but he never totally shut the door to us! Father was honest with us and very much in a very difficult position. I know Father worked very hard trying to find a way to re-open St. Joachim. We have got to balance our budgets; Father has his. As the years have passed, Father Tom has been more of a friend to us rather than as an adversary. We never saw him in that light but I’m sure he must have felt that way. Father was very receptive to new ideas and efforts to honor those buried in our cemetery and those still above. Thank you, Father Tom!

You may wonder why I can say we are grateful and blessed! But it’s because we are! It’s because of what we mean to each other! We have a special bond that nothing on earth can break. That will never change! The news of the possible relegation to profane use and sale hits the heart like a heat-seeking missile. But I also know that it’s not over yet! It will take time!

We had our one miracle; I don’t doubt the possibility of another. Going forward let us be the people of hope, diversity and faith! Whatever God’s plan is for St. Joachim and for us, it will be special! Because you and Frankford are special!

Upcoming Presentation at The Historical Society of Frankford

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Save the Date! You are cordially invited and most welcome to the first event at The Historical Society of Frankford. Join us on Tuesday, September 10, 7:30 PM at 1507 Orthodox St., parking on street and usually in the lot of Frankford Friends School! Light refreshments follow!
 
The first topic of the new year sheds light on “The Church Street Quarries (Deni Playground)” presented by John Hewitt and Bob Smiley! John Hewitt is a graduate of St. Joachim Catholic School and local historian and Bob Smiley is a prominent member of Keep the Faith in Frankford and the editor of “The Frankford Gazette”. 
 
Also, meet and greet the members of “The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery”! Pat Smiley, President and Executive Director of Keep the Faith in Frankford and Holy Innocents Parish will introduce their new effort to clean up, restore and maintain the St. Joachim Cemetery located behind the Church at Griscom and Church Streets. Joseph Taylor, Co-ordinator of “The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery” will detail our project and upcoming events! 
This is sure to be an exciting evening! Hope to see you there!!

Friends Bring New Life to St. Joachim Cemetery!

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A very special day! Keep the Faith in Frankford launched the first project of more to come for The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery. Joe Taylor co-ordinates this effort and he approaches it like many things he’s done before – with a list of tasks. A holdover from his Navy days perhaps but Joe has been invaluable with his lists of to-do’s and sets of plans for any project we’ve done!

Joe, your skill helped you and the Friends to be so successful today! Well done and we owe you, Maureen Taylor, and all who helped today our thanks!

Joe and Maureen Taylor are the “perfect people” to head this effort. Before the Capuchin Franciscans arrived, Keep the Faith in Frankford had a committee we called, “St. Joachim Sanitation Saints”. We would periodically clean Griscom St. along the rectory and cemetery and Church St. in front of the Church. Before this year’s Annual Feast Day Mass, Bob Smiley and I saw Joe and Maureen at their house and they mentioned being down around Church earlier that day. I asked, “What were you doing there?” and was told, they were cleaning up in preparation for Mass. Good people!

It was a hot Saturday morning in Philly yesterday – a heat alert was in effect by mid-afternoon, yet all who came out in the morning could have stayed home, done other things or nothing at all, but they wanted to help clean up the final resting place for people they might have known or for people that they didn’t know at all. As we continue this effort, we do want you to get to know the stories of the people who are buried here. These are the people who “kept the faith” for us for over 175 years.

Gina Christian, Senior Content Producer and Host of InsideCatholicPhilly.com podcast, came by, today, too! Thank you, Gina, for getting the word out there for us on Catholic Philly! Continued blessings and much success in your efforts!

Many thanks, Fr. Tom Higgins, Pastor, Holy Innocents Parish, for approving this project and for supporting it with your hard work, today, too. Father has always been supportive of our programs to honor those Veterans who are buried in our cemetery. To you, Father, Joe and Maureen Taylor, Brian McCloskey, Tom McAvoy, Julia, Lorenzo and Sal Roldan and Sean Brassil, a hearty and grateful “Thank You” for your efforts. May God continue to bless you for your generosity of time and talent!

To those who were not able to come today, we thank you for your donations of money and wanting to help, and to keep informed, you can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefriendsofstjoachimcemetery/ and on the web at https://keepthefaithinfrankford.org/the-friends-of-st-joachim-cemetery/

Here’s some of what The Friends of St. Joachim Cemetery were able to accomplish today! See you next time!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXiwfTSunrE[/embedyt]

 

 

Our Annual Feast Day Mass to Honor Sts. Joachim and Ann, July 27, 2019, St. Joachim Church, Frankford

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We are so happy that our Annual Feast Day Mass was such a special one! Over 80 people attended our 6th Annual Feast Day Mass on Saturday, July 27, 2019, 4 PM at St. Joachim Church in Frankford. We merged with Holy Innocents Parish on July 1, 2013. Keep the Faith in Frankford was established just for this purpose – to keep the faith in Frankford. Mater Dolorosa, St. Joachim and St. Joan of Arc all merged into Holy Innocents on that day. Earlier, Ascension parishioners had merged as well.

When we filed our appeal, little did we know that 3 1/2 years later, the Capuchin Franciscans would purchase our former Convent for the Padre Pio Friary and then reopen St. Joachim to house the Padre Pio Prayer Center. We started, because of Father Steve, praying to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, at the end of every Mass during the Area Pastoral Planning Process. Once it was decided we would merge, within a year or two, Keep the Faith in Frankford was opening its weekly meetings with the same prayer! Someone heard our prayer!! 🙂

The Capuchin Franciscans of the St. Augustine Province arrived in July, 2016 and St. Joachim Church continues to serve Frankford and beyond today! God has been very good to us! This is most unusual for one of our Churches to be re-opened. Below is the schedule that was first posted!

Many people are sustanon 350 for sale owed thanks for their contributions and participation in our celebration this past Saturday. Keep the Faith in Frankford organizes, plans, provides the program and refreshment for these yearly Feast Day Masses. We would like to thank Father Thomas Higgins, Pastor, Holy Innocents Parish, for both his help, support and being our yearly celebrant! I just met Brother Alex Hostoffer, who, along with Brother Andrew McCarty, supervises and directs the efforts of the Padre Pio Prayer Center. PPPC is in very good hands. Thank you, both, for all of your help in preparing the Church for this Mass and our refreshments after. Brother Kip Ledger is the Guardian of the Friary and we thank you, Brother Kip and the Postulants for setting up and cleaning up for us. Every year, we are “wowed” with the caliber of the young men who are interested in following the way of St. Francis. There are already powerful women in the Church – we need only look at Sr. Kathleen Anderson, SSJ, Pastoral Minister, HI, Sr. Catherine Glackin, IHM, Pastoral Care, HI, and Sr. Linda Lukiewski, SSJ, for your presence and support! We are indeed very blessed! Please be assured of all of our prayers for each one of you in your ministries.

A Mass doesn’t really happen without the laity in the pews. To all of you who attended and were able to brave the heat, God bless you, we count on you! To our Lectors, Marco Osuna, Helen Greenberg and Maureen Taylor, thank you! To those who brought up our gifts – Jack Pfiel, Sabina Baker-Tegeder, Mary and Preston Moretz, and Joe Taylor, thank you! To our ushers, Bill McGeehan, Sr., Bob Smiley and Joe Taylor, thank you so much! We owe many, many thanks to our superb and St. Joachim favorite Cantor, John McCabe. John selected our beautiful and inspiring music! Well done, John! And to my very good friend, Sr. Rita Keller, IHM,who stepped in to help us as organist when we really needed her, many thanks! Your musical talent is a gift – some of the music Sister hadn’t seen until she arrived from Virginia!!

For those of you unable to attend or to just experience the joy of this day, again, please take a look at the following video! Every one of these faces in this video is special to us! Each of you showed we could really be “One With the Lord”!!! Next year is 2020! 🙂

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WAH9PvqMwQ[/embedyt]

 

 

Keep the Faith in Frankford Steps Into History!

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Our Step Into History Tours #1 and #2 were a success. Those who attended agreed that it was informative, enlightening and a good way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon.

Our next Step Into History Tour #3 takes place on Sunday, June 5. We will be touring the sites of former mills, mansions that the owners lived in and we hope to get inside some of these magnificient edifices for a peek.

As always, each tour begins at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum for a personalized tour given by Dr. Andy Waskie. Then we visit the sites in Frankford for that particular day. We finish at The Historical Society of Frankford for a wrap-up and light refreshments.

We hope you join us! Step Into History Tours Flyer

 

 

Community Meeting Takes Aim At Recent Violence in Frankford

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Dean Jon Clodfelter and Deacon Phil Geliebter, St. Mark’s Church, have been on a mission to address the drug trade and the violence that results because of it. Monday, March 28, they invited the community to get involved at a meeting held at the Church. The community was well-represented with faith and community leaders, active and concerned residents. To succeed, this effort will include everyone in the community and we must believe that we can make a difference. There was a roomful of believers present. The meeting was led by Deacon Phil.

We heard a presentation about Cease Fire, a national program, which intervenes in a community to prevent violence. Funded by many national and local partners, and based at Temple University, to bring this program to Frankford would cost $250,000. Cease Fire employs people who live in the community who have experienced and lived the “high risk street activity” but can be the “right messengers” to “interrupt” and offer different choices, a different path. You can learn more about them at http://philaceasefire.com/  We can look into possible funding. A representative from Temple was willing to help. All present agreed, that this would be but one strategy and we need to tackle these problems with many different solutions.

We know that everyone reacts differently to stress. We know that our modern times are stressful and made more so by the shots we hear, the news reports and the frustration and sadness that comes because it’s not only the loss of the victims of crime we mourn but also the lives of those who commit them – it’s senseless and tragic. The best advice for dealing with some of this stress was shared by  Ysaye  Zmore, Human Services Incident Response Planner, of the city’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services. Ysaye suggested that we each take the time every day to do something we really like – cook, garden, read, walk, play with your children or grandchildren. It’s trying to keep the balance in an unbalanced world. You can learn more about their services here – http://dbhids.org/

The Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia also provides counseling for individuals and families and victim assistance services to those most directly affected by violence. Lisa Christian explained that they serve families, individuals and work in high schools, too. This age of students 13-17 are the ones most savvy in social media. Of late, they have observed more posting of pictures of themselves holding weapons. Many, many autopsies of our youth, 17 years and older, with drugs in their system. President Obama, speaking at a drug abuse summit in Atlanta this past Tuesday, has made the correlation that we see drugs as a criminal problem but we need to look at as a health problem. Our youth are in crisis. Lisa told us, too, that 60% of school age children in our city have an episode of homelessness – 6 out of 10 children.

IMG_1769 (1)These were the experts sharing their truth. Those attending the meeting were experts, too, as each had many experiences and knowledge in addressing these issues, too. Robert Cook, the Pastor of St. James and standing up in our picture and speaking, has done much work with youth and families. St. James has planned a Coffee House, 6 PM, Sunday, April 10 for “live music, food and fun”. All are welcome! Pastor Rob also hosts a Family Movie Night, etc., bringing families in the community together. For more information, contact Pastor Rob directly at [email protected].

Pastor Richard Smith of the Faith Assembly of God, spoke very passionately about the need for us to carry on Christ’s mission of caring for each and everyone in the community. Pastor Smith makes a dedicated effort to find the children that are hungry in our area.

Jim Boxmeyer, a local resident, spoke about he and his wife’s efforts to maintain and improve a block on Foulkrod Street by screening get involved communitytenants and taking care of the properties they own. We know many stories of absentee landlords in our area who care nothing except for the revenue their properties generate.

Kudos to all who attended. An impressive group!

The next meeting of this community group is scheduled for Monday, April 11, 6 PM at St. Mark’s Church, 4442 Frankford Ave., Phila., PA 19124. Our agenda includes the skills and talents we possess and can share  and concrete ways we can help to make a difference in our community of Frankford. We will be looking for you!!

 

 

 

Ecumenical Lenten Prayer Services Offered

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All are invited and welcome to our Ecumenical Prayer Services on Wednesday evenings, February 17 – March 23, 2016. Sponsored by Keep the Faith in Frankford and held at St. Mark’s Church, 4442 Frankford Avenue, beginning at 6:30 PM! Join us for an opportunity to renew your soul with the Word and your body with cake and coffee!! Bring a friend or two!Got Faith Sessions

A Community Shares Tears and Grace

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community in wordsBad things happen to very good people. I had seen this story on the news, one of too many. As I have been talking to our parishioners this week, a Dad told me that his two sons went to school with the victim of this latestes senseless murder, Don Green, and they were “feeling the shock, so senseless” an act. If you’re unaware of what happened Friday night, you can read about it here – “Two Suspects Sought After Juniata Man Gunned Down”. The name, “Don” stuck in my mind and I checked Facebook and realized that I had talked to Don’s Dad, also Don, when we were distributing our information to our fellow parishioners at Holy Innocents. Don had stood outside on a dark, cold, windy Saturday night and listened to me as I explained our desire and need for a weekly Mass in Frankford. His son had gone ahead to the car (I bet to warm it up!!) and waited patiently while Don took the time to listen. A true act of kindness! Don is very involved in Holy Innocents and his community. I shared the story with my brother-in-law because he works at Naval Support Activity on Oxford Ave with Don. He knew Don and had volunteered in a tutoring program that Don ran at Carnell Elementary School. Our prayers, hearts and thoughts go out to the Green family and to all whose lives young Don already touched or would have touched in the future. We are all one community – one in Christ. I am respectful of all that must be happening at Holy Innocents as they prepare to say good-bye to Don, a young man taken much too soon. Lord, may you bless, in particular, the Green family, with all the love and support that they need, during this most difficult time and may the community also surround them with all that they will need.

I have been calling our St. Joachim and Mater Dolorosa parishioners regarding a petition to reopen St. Joachim – to get a weekly Mass in Frankford. I realized that Frankford is the community that has kept us going since St. Joachim closed in June 2013. Community is the most often mentioned word encountered when I talk to people and their experiences since both Catholic Churches closed in Frankford. That’s what we miss and that’s what we try to hold on to and it’s what we look for at the many parishes we visit trying to find that “Frankford style of community”! It’s rare. It’s a community where you can speak the truth and people will listen and let you have your say. We may not always agree but we try to work it out. We try to find that common ground – which is our faith – which is ourselves!! 

Father Higgins announced over the weekend at Mass that the St. Joachim convent had been sold for $200,000 to the Capuchins. I called Father Higgins this morning and left a message hoping to learn more about the purchase. I also told the secretary that we are sorry for the grief the Green family are experiencing and that all are in our prayers. We are respectful of all that must be happening and that learning more will just have to wait for the appropriate time. Deneme bonusu 2024

Well, we do know that Archbishop Chaput is a Capuchin. We know that the Capuchins run St. John the Evangelist Church on 13th St. But we don’t know what plans they have for Frankford yet.  Until, we know more, we must keep working to reopen St. Joachim and doing what we think (with God’s help) will bring that about. 

As for our Frankford community, we do know what has been said up until now. The Archbishop tells us that Father Higgins makes all the decisions for the Worship Site. We know that Father Higgins has told us nothing would change as long as he is Pastor. We know that he did not even acknowledge our requests for a Mass for the Anniversary of the Dedication of St. Joachim on December 13, 2015. Our experience tells us that for over 2 years and 7 months, the community of Frankford, the community of St. Joachim, the community of Mater Dolorosa and the community of St. Joan of Arc have not received  compassion or a willingness to honor or value our communities.

We do know that at St. Joachim, Father Steve had us say a prayer to Padre Pio before Mass during the time of the Area Pastoral Planning Process. We know that Padre Pio was a Capuchin. We know that we’ve had the Blessed Mother’s ear, the love of her Son, and the watchful presence of His grandfather, St. Joachim. We know “by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Deneme bonusu

We know that we are steadfast in our hope and belief in the need for a Catholic Church in Frankford. We know we are Keep(ing) the Faith in Frankford and beyond.