Capuchin priest looks back on two decades of community ministry

Capuchin priest looks back on two decades of community ministry
 
By MICHAEL BROWN
Managing Editor
 
Capuchin Father Robert Kose leaned over to touch a bloom that had just peeked out in the back yard at Casa San Jose, realizing he would never see it fully blossom.

He and the last two Capuchins were packing in early October to leave their home, the former St. Augustine Convent, after 21 years’ presence in the Diocese of Tucson.

“It’s very hard to leave. There are so many attachments here to the community. The people here have become important to our lives,” said Father Kose.
The Capuchins arrived in 1998, at the invitation of then-Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas. These Capuchins came from the Detroit Province of St. Joseph; however, Arizona falls under the purview of the California province, Father Kose said, so the northern province needed permission to set up a base in Tucson. With no Capuchin presence from California already in Arizona, the cross-province permission was quickly granted.

Father Kose explained that Capuchins from Detroit and Milwaukee, another cold northern city, were looking for a warm weather state to allow senior priests – otherwise healthy except for cold-weather ailments – to continue ministry past retirement age. He himself was living in Milwaukee and suffering from respiratory and other ailments when he was assigned to Tucson in 2006. Not only did he recover, but he has remained healthy so that at age 75, he has taken up another “retirement” assignment at Old Mission Santa Ines in Solvang, California, about 40 miles northeast of Santa Barbara. “There’s no other place I would rather go.” Father Kose served St. Augustine Cathedral, Our Lady Queen of All Saints, St. Cyril’s,   Our Lady of Fatima, St. Mary Margaret and the former Benedictine Monastery, Tucson; San Felipe, Nogales; Our Lady of the Valley, Green Valley; and Most Holy Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Rio Rico.
He left Tucson Oct. 17.

Capuchin Father Ben Markwell, 85, has been at Casa San Jose for only a year, offering Mass at St. Cyril Church and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Convent in Tucson. He also left on Oct. 17 to travel to Florida to live with a twin brother, a priest with the White Fathers who live in retirement there.

Father Franklin (Duane) Eichhorst, 89, had served St. Joseph’s and St. John’s in Tucson, departed to a community residence in Wisconsin Oct. 9.

The dream of having senior priests here fell through as older Capuchins developed health problems that excluded them from residency at Casa San Jose, Father Kose said. “To be here, you have to be able to take care of yourself.”

He noted that of all the Capuchins in residence, only Brother Michael Graf - one of the founding members - died in Tucson on March 2, 2013.

“It’s amazing that even in the high 80s, we are still working in parishes,” Father Kose said. “It has to be the grace of God. It has to be.”

Father Kose said his ministry serving Catholics here has been rewarding and gratifying, even in his advanced age.

“I’ve gotten more from them than they have gotten from me. They have helped me grow in my own faith,” he said.

“You develop personal relationships with the people,” he added, “walking with the people, walking with them in their joys and their sorrows.”

Nowhere was this more evident than at his farewell Mass at St. Cosme. It’s a small chapel serviced once a month by priests from St. Augustine’s. Father Kose has been offering Mass there for eight years.

For his last Mass there, St. Augustine’s rector, Father Gilbert Malu Musumbu joined him and “was struck by the number of people who came out.”

The chapel Mass, usually attended by fewer than the 65-seat capacity for the building, was overcome by the 125 well-wishers drawn by the chance to say “good-bye.”

Father Kose said his ministry has been enriched by the opportunity to celebrate Mass for Hispanic communities throughout the state.

“With the spirituality of the Hispanic community, the Church comes alive,” he said. Cultural elements, such as mariachi music, “create a very vibrant worship.”
The greatest challenge he faced in ministry was spreading the church’s social teaching to the community. Immigration issues have been particularly thorny,

Father Kose said, but he was pleased that the Diocese has been a major player with Catholic Community Services’ efforts in refugee care through Casa Alitas.
Even as they distributed some of their belongings from Casa San Jose, the Capuchins donated items like bed linens to the immigrant shelter as a sign of their solidarity.

Another challenge in ministry has been the break-up of families and members of the Hispanic community drifting away from the Church. Father Kose reported some success through counseling efforts and introducing young Hispanic men to the Knights of Columbus – notably Spanish-speaking councils – as a way of helping them stay connected.
Although Father Kose wrote a regular column for the diocesan newspaper for 10 years, he said he had no interest in returning to a regular column or writing a book at his next assignment. “My writing days are over.”

He continued to express gratitude for the “warmth and affection” shown to him by people at each assignment, and for the people “inviting me into their lives.”
“I’m a better person and a better priest because of them.”