November 12, 2010

Crosiers Fathers, Brothers gather to mark 800 years since founding

 

NATIONAL

 

By Joyce Coronel
Catholic News Service
(CNS Photo/Brad Armstrong, Crosier Fathers and Brothers)

PHOENIX (CNS) — More than 500 people crowded into St. Mary’s Basilica for Mass Nov. 7 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Crosier order in Belgium in 1210.

Among those in attendance were Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo A. Nevares and retired Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien, all of the Diocese of Phoenix.

The Crosiers Fathers and Brothers, a worldwide religious order, have been serving in the Phoenix Diocese for 30 years and in the United States for 100 years. In 2007, the Crosiers moved their national headquarters to Phoenix.

Crosier Father Thomas Carkhuff, head of the U.S. province, welcomed the crowd to the celebration. Thirty Crosier Fathers and Brothers, arrayed in their trademark black and white cassocks, lined the first several pews of the basilica.

“Our celebration today is really like a commencement ceremony. We end our festivities, but the main focus for us is our future,” Father Carkhuff said. “We are deeply grateful for God’s fidelity during these past 800 years, and we are full of hope that God will be faithful to us for the next 800 years.”

Father Glen Lewandowski, master general of the Crosiers, traveled from Rome to preside at the Mass.

The Crosiers, he said, have eight centuries of brethren they count in their company, but he said their brotherhood extends even further.

“We are brothers to all because we hope to be sons in the eldest Son of God, our firstborn brother of the Resurrection. … That hope and in that baptism we are brothers to all of you,” Father Lewandowski said.

Among those at the Mass and reception afterward were a number of religious sisters from throughout the Phoenix Diocese, including the Sisters of Mercy, the Congregation of St. Agnes, the Missionaries of Charity, the Benedictine Sisters, the Maryknoll Missionaries, the Franciscan Sisters, the Dominican Sisters and the Paulists.