Dear friends,
“Change is the only constant in life,” said Heraclitus, and indeed the new year marked a change for many friars in our Custody. For example, there is a new parish team at St Mary of the Angels, and Friar Joseph Lee, the first in our Custody to reach 70 years of age, will be in Manila for a few months for a sabbatical programme.
I, however, continue as Custos, and I am hoping to deepen my intention for the Custody towards greater authenticity as Franciscans, as friars minor. Our Minister General, Friar Massimo Fusarelli, exhorted us during our Chapter last September to focus on strengthening fraternal life. As this is concretely expressed in having at least three friars in each community, we have had to suspend our presence in Penang because we do not have enough Malaysian friars for four communities in Malaysia.
This difficult decision has spurred my desire for our fraternal life to become more intentional. St Francis of Assisi espoused a fraternal life where brothers mutually care for one another and grow in their affective and spiritual maturity personally and communally. To encourage this in our communities, Friar Aiden Peter, as the new Moderator for Ongoing Formation, is considering fresh ideas to stimulate some change in the way we live out our community life.
This year, we are also grateful for our Custody’s spiritual heritage. On 26 January, we celebrated the 50th death anniversary of Blessed Gabriele Allegra, whom our Custody adopted as our co-patron together with St Anthony of Padua. Without Blessed Allegra, we Franciscan Friars might not be in this part of the world. It was his vision to set up the St Anthony Franciscan Sociological Centre in Singapore to offer a Catholic alternative to the Communist ideology that was gaining ground in the 1950s. Whilst tirelessly translating the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek to Chinese and directing the Blessed Scotus Franciscan Biblical Institute in Hong Kong, Blessed Allegra still found time to come to Singapore in the early 1960s.
Turning back the clock several hundred years, we come to the time of St Francis of Assisi. This year we remember 800 years of his Transitus, his return to the Father by welcoming Sister Death. In Assisi, the Friars of the Basilica of St Francis will hold a month-long public display of the mortal remains of St Francis from 22 February 2026. I expound on this exciting event in the Feature article.
As I write this, I have just returned from a week-long meeting, from 5 to 8 January 2026, with the Religious Superiors from Malaysia and Singapore. We also had a joint meeting with the Bishops in our Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Speaking about change, I can see the deepening of friendship and trust among us Superiors in my six years as Custos. The level of cooperation and collaboration has been taken up a notch. This kind of change is not revolutionary; rather it is secure and organic, the kind that I know comes from an authentic space which can be sustained and is life-giving. I find this truly heart-warming.
I pray that all of us may experience this sort of change this year, especially in our spiritual life. May our Lenten experience be a graced opportunity to ground ourselves further in our Lord. Please pray for us friars as we continue to grow and strengthen our Franciscan presence and service of God’s people. May the Lord bless you and your loved ones!
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