June 4, 2026

Friar Michael Heine, OFM Conv., installed as Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial

REGIONAL
Staff report

Minister General Friar Carlos Alberto Trovarelli (left) and Minister Provincial Friar Michael Heine pose for a picture May 19. (IObserve photo/courtesy of Our Lady of the Angels Province)

SPRINGFIELD — A Mass of the Holy Spirit was celebrated on May 19, 2026, in Baltimore, Md., as Friar Michael Heine OFM Conv. was installed for the second time as minister provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province (OLA). Friar Carlos Alberto Trovarelli, OFM Conv., minister general of the Friars Minor Conventual, traveled from Rome, Italy to celebrate the Mass and preside over the installation which was held on the second day of OLA’s Fourth Ordinary Chapter.

In the Diocese of Springfield, the friars have served in Our Lady of the Cross Parish in Holyoke and St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Chicopee. In their attempt to restructure their resources, they will no longer serve at these parishes, effective Aug. 1. However, the diocese will staff both parishes with diocesan priests. The friars will remain at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Ludlow, at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr in Chicopee, as well as at the senior friars residence in Chicopee.

“The Chapter is an opportunity to renew our faith, our relationship with God, and our identity as believers as Conventual Franciscans,” Friar Trovarelli said during 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 Heine 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 Franciscan ministry has taken him to Jamaica where he served as a missionary at Above Rocks; he taught religion and directed the ALPHA Peer Ministry program at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, Fl.; he 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, Md., 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 Heine said.

The Mass and installation were celebrated at the Maritime Conference Center where 70 delegate friars gathered for the chapter.

“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 Trovarelli  concluded.