Carmelite official praises school, parishes 'looking to the future'
By Paula Doyle, The Tidings
The Spanish priest sitting in the principal's office last month at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino has something in common with the school's namesake besides nationality.
Carmelite Father Fernando Millán Romeral, prior general of the Order of Carmelites is a friar, or member of a mendicant order, as was Franciscan Father Juan Crespi, life-long companion of California's Mission system founder Fray Junipero Serra.
Father Romeral was visiting Los Angeles for the first time to attend Crespi High School's 50th anniversary celebrations, where he was the principal celebrant for a packed Jubilee Mass on Aug. 22 for the school's all-boys' student body, alumni, faculty and friends at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. He also toured local Carmelite-staffed parishes, including St. Raphael in Los Angeles and St. Jane Frances de Chantal in North Hollywood.
"We are friars, not monks," the Rome-based prior general told The Tidings Aug. 21 during an interview attended by Carmelite Father John Welch, prior provincial of the Carmelite Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, based in Darien, Ill.
Rather than removing themselves from the world, Father Romeral explained, Carmelite friars "accept the challenges of the modern world [in areas such as] education, politics and social justice [while] living in a contemplative way or practicing 'contemplation in reality' --- not only being contemplative but contemplating the people of God in the dark and the light and the complicated and complex reality around us."
The brown-robed head of the Carmelite order, elected two years ago this month at age 45, says priorities of the world-wide religious community of 2,000 friars include increasing vocations, strengthening missions and re-envisioning their ministry.
"We are starting a new millennium. Carmelites have eight centuries of history, born in 1207. We need to rethink our identity and [decide] what the church and the modern world are asking from us," said the friar, a former professor on the faculty of theology of the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid.
"I think we have something important to offer the world and the church, and that's the sense of contemplation --- of spiritual depth," noted Father Romeral. "We are involved in many ministries, such as schools, parishes and universities, but our style is to do it in a very contemplative way. We live in a world with so many machines and gadgets everywhere. Sometimes we need a little bit of spiritual and human depth to meet God."
At the 50 Carmelite-run schools around the world, students have opportunities to develop their interior life as well as their exterior life. "A school like Crespi becomes a faith community within which the individual is encouraged to respect himself, to grow into an identity as part of a community and to realize he's loved by God," said Father Welch.
"To have self-respect, to have identity, to not always seek outside 'Who am I?' [but] to try to hear within" is the aim of Carmelite education, said Father Welch. He added this is accomplished by giving students quiet time for reflection, teaching practices like centering prayer and having school retreats, liturgies and peer ministry.
"We are living in a culturally complex moment within the church and our society," added Father Romeral, "but I think we can give in our schools a deeper sense of life." He praised Crespi for being "a wonderful school," and shared that, as an alumnus of a Carmelite school in Madrid, he has a keen interest in the survival of Carmelite schools.
He pointed out that a recently-formed international commission for Carmelite schools will have a congress in Ireland next spring celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Carmelites' first modern school (a college) in Dublin.
"We are trying to reestablish our presence in our schools," said Father Romeral, acknowledging that Carmelite vocations have decreased in the US and Europe in contrast to places such as Africa, India and Indonesia where Carmelite vocations are growing. Indonesia has been the biggest province of the order for the last 15 years.
"It's not possible today to have 8-10 friars in our schools; perhaps we'll have one or two friars to keep the Carmelite Catholic identity and have lay people be more involved in direction," said Father Romeral.
"Our numbers (in the western world) are going to decrease. We have to cope with this situation with hope and be present in another way. We'll have little communities in the midst of the people, serving, offering Carmelite charism," said the prior general.
As far as the health of local Carmelite-run parishes he had visited before speaking with The Tidings, Father Romeral was optimistic. "We got a very good impression of both St. Raphael and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. The nicest thing for me was that both were looking to the future, building things and renewing the parish," said Father Romeral.
