(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Winter 2026  Issue #118)

By Joe Makley, OFS • National JPIC Animator

I remember with great warmth a snowy 2:00 AM drive to pick up our daughter, Grace, at Holy Cross Church in Lewiston, Maine, where the bus had returned from the March for Life in Washington D.C.  She was less weary than the chaperones, and excited to share her adventures. It was around that same time my pastor, Father Conley, asked me to do a talk after Mass to support the diocese pro-life legislation. I said yes, and from the ambo, I noticed a friend in the front row whose body language suggested disapproval. I realized there could be a social cost for taking a public stand. My son, William, however, gave me the thumbs up.

In 2016 Our family attended a march in our state capital in support of protecting our climate and environment. I was grateful for the recent promulgation of Laudato Si, and the opportunity to promote it. The march included about 2000 people, which is a lot for Maine. If there were other Catholics, I couldn’t tell by their signs. Back at Church, I explained that it would have been okay for Catholics. It was mostly moms and kids with signs like “God loves woodchucks!” The blank responses told me America had a lot of work to do on Pope Francis’ vision of a Church awakened to an integral ecology.

In the summer of 2018, I heard a call from Father Sam Fuller, OFM Cap, who had become a pastor in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was helping to facilitate a public walk to shine a light on unjust deportation practices that were happening to his parishioners. I marched for one day. We stopped at a detention facility and prayed on the sidewalk, ending up at a lakeside park for lunch. There were a few honks of agreement from passing cars and a reporter from Telemundo, but no trouble from anyone. I spoke about this at a regional gathering. Afterward, at more than one table, I was approached by members who disagreed with advocacy for immigrants. It was another opportunity for that loving dialogue.

In 2023, I heard another call, this time from Suzanne, our diocesan Public Policy Director in Maine. There was an abortion-on-demand bill in committee, and she asked us to come down to the state house and testify in person. I met Franciscans I knew on every floor. On the fourth floor were tables to register. I looked over the balcony railing and saw the lines going down four floors of steps and out the door. They had to let them all testify. It took most of the night. I asked a clerk, “Have you ever seen anything like this?” “Nope,” he said.

Last month my wife, Patricia, and I, along with some folks from our parish cluster and Kay, our regional JPIC animator, answered a call to pray outside the Portland Jail, which had been contracted to hold ICE deportees. It was a beautiful service, without confrontation, sponsored by Pax Christi Maine. To me, it was because Jesus was in there. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” I was encouraged by the thought that our humble group’s voice was a little louder for the presence of Secular Franciscans.

If we don’t invite dialogue, we never overcome our distrust of one another. Whenever I feel even slightly uncomfortable in speaking publicly for justice, I remember the people who suffered greatly for the same cause. It was Thea Bowman who talked about just doing her “little bit… if we all just light a candle, we’d have a tremendous light.”

March 23, 2026 update to a recent blog “Servant of God Adele Brice & Our Lady of Champion (WI, USA)”

From: https://championshrine.org/timeline/

Adele and her companions form a community of Third Order Franciscans and begin to stabilize their missionary work in a farmhouse not far from the wood frame Chapel. Later in the year a school and convent are built of wood frame construction.

Update:

Based on a more complete biography of Adele Brice from the records at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, we have confirmation that Adele & her group of “Sisters” were not canonically established as a religious Order but were a group of lay/secular women living a Franciscan life.  According to the terminology of that period in history, they were “Third Order” (our current Secular Franciscan Order).

Some Third Order/Secular Franciscan History:

In A Short History of the Third Order by Marion Habig, OFM & Mark Hegener, OFM (1963), Part 2 addresses the history of the Third Order of St. Francis in the USA from approximately the early 1900’s through the mid-1960’s.  In the Introduction to the book, the author cites two ancient philosophers concerning the importance of knowing one’s history: Cicero called history the “teacher of life” and Dryden rephrased this concept as “the most pleasant school of wisdom”.

1. The authors frequently use the term Tertiary or tertiaries which is just a shortened form of “Third Order member(s)”.  The term Tertiary is still used but only rarely.
2. While it’s probable that some Third Order Franciscans came to America when Franciscan friars traveled with the early explorers, the Third Order had little organization, uniform practices or recorded history till the late 19th – early 20th century.  What little they did have was predominantly in the hands of the friars & developed during a few national Congresses or Conventions under Franciscan friar leadership & then distributed to the Third Order fraternities.
3. The General Constitutions of 1957 and new Ritual helped to facilitate this necessary unification. But along with this unification came a sense of being 2^nd class Franciscan religious.  Although they didn’t take vows, Tertiaries were expected to practice the evangelical virtues of faith, hope and charity in a heroic way, have a regulated prayer life, take religious names (called each other Sister or Brother [chosen name]) & wear a “habit” daily which, over the years, went from a modified religious habit to a scapular and cord.
4. The Second Vatican Council (early 1960’s) and Popes John XXIII and Paul VI (both of whom were Third Order Franciscans) encouraged all religious & lay Orders to “look to your roots” as a means to revitalize their Orders. These factors were the impetus for the Franciscan friars to encourage & support the lay Third Order leaders to honor the sacredness of their lay vocation; to assume responsibility for updating their governing documents to meet the needs of the times and to discern “what is ours to do” (which included changing the name of our Order to “The Secular Franciscan Order”).
5. Frs. Habig & Hegener closed Part II with “the Third Order was founded to ‘satisfy a thirst for heroism’ in the hearts of people”.

Do you feel called to “satisfy a thirst for (personal spiritual) heroism”?  Are you living in such a way that you inflame a thirst for spiritual heroism in others?

Terri Leone, OFS