Minister General Friar Carlos, OFM Conv., (left) and Minister Provincial Friar Michael Heine, OFM Conv.
BALTIMORE — Friar Michael Heine, OFM Conv., was installed for the second time as minister provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province during a May 19 Mass in Baltimore. Friar Carlos Alberto Trovarelli, OFM Conv., minister general of the Friars Minor Conventual, traveled from Rome to celebrate the Mass and preside over the installation. Charlotte Bishop Michael T. Martin, OFM Conv., is a member of the province.
The installation was held on the second day of OLA’s Fourth Ordinary Chapter, a special meeting attended by delegates from a geographic region called a province.
“The Chapter is an opportunity to renew our faith, our relationship with God and our identity as believers as Conventual Franciscans,” Friar Carlos said in his homily. “Brothers: Yes, with live within ecclesiastical structures, but let us pay attention to our real relationship with God. Let us allow ourselves to be embraced by the mystery.”
Friar Michael entered the Franciscan Friars Conventual in 1981, professing his simple vows in 1982, followed by his solemn vows in 1986. He was ordained a friar-priest in 1990. His ministry has taken him to the town of Above Rocks, Jamaica, where he served as a missionary; he taught religion and directed the ALPHA Peer Ministry program at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, Florida; was director of School Counseling at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore; and for eight years was director of The Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City, Maryland, where OLA is located.
“It is worth reflecting on what Friar Carlos said that we need to keep our intimate relationship with God and from there everything else flows,” Friar Michael said.
The Mass and installation was celebrated at the Maritime Conference Center, where 70 delegate friars gathered.
“Let us renew ourselves, then, and return time and again to the sources of our identity, to our first love, to the desire the live in the glory of Christ, manifested in His Cross and Resurrection,” Friar Carlos said.
— Kevin A. Keenan