By Thea Jarvis

Pastoral care of the churches of St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes will be turned over to the Capuchin Franciscan province of the Stigmata of St. Francis this June.

The province is based in Union City, N.J.

As both parishes prepare for change, Capuchins assigned to Atlanta are pondering change in their own lives as well.

Father Robert Grix, OFM, Cap., who will assume duties as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Atlanta this June, says his new assignment is “going to be different” since he’s never lived outside the metropolitan New York area before.

Since his ordination in 1978, Father Grix, 40, has been a parish priest and a pastor since 1988. He was elected provincial vicar of his community in 1990 and sees his transfer as a sign of the importance the province now attaches to ministry in the South.

“The South gives us an opportunity to respond to a need,” Father Grix said. “There’s such growth in the South,” while there is “overkill in the Northeast,” an abundance of Catholic churches, clergy and Religious.

After agreeing to expand ministry in the South, the province moved its novitiate to Hickory, N.C. last September.

Ministry to black Catholics, Father Grix said, is a new direction for the province. Although many churches in the Northeast have a large African-American population, few are exclusively dedicated to black tradition and culture.

“It hasn’t been easy to be black and Catholic,” he said, and the result has been a faith that is “more spiritual, more alive” because of difficulties met and overcome.

Father Grix’s parents live in south Florida with his sister and the move to Atlanta means he will be closer to family.

Although “I love New York, it’s home” to him, he is “really looking forward to being an Atlantan.”

Joining Father Grix as pastoral associate at Our Lady of Lourdes is Brother Ephrain Roman, OFM, Cap., who says growing up on the streets of the South Bronx made him “a pretty adaptable” person. His love of people was what interested him in Franciscan life after working alongside his father in the family business.

“I got tired of working just to make the bucks,” said Brother Roman, 32. He joined the Capuchins at age 25 and has been ministering in New Jersey parishes since 1985.

This summer, Brother Roman moves from one Our Lady of Lourdes church to another. For the past four years, he has been assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Paterson, N.J., where he has served a sizable Hispanic community.

Brother Roman’s parents came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico, he said, and he and eight siblings were raised in a typical Hispanic family.

He is a self-described “jack of all trades” who has been undercover security guard and service station mechanic as well as a black belt karate instructor.

“I look like a tough guy,” Brother Roman laughed, “but inside I’m a marshmallow.”

As a Franciscan, he is drawn to social ministry, and has worked with the homeless in every parish he has served.

“I really don’t know what to expect” at Lourdes in Atlanta, he said, but “whatever comes, I’ll just do it.”

Father John Salvas, OFM, Cap, the next pastor of St. Anthony’s Church, says the first thing he plans to do in Atlanta is to ask parishioners to call him “brother.”

The title underscores the unity of the Christian community and is “a Franciscan charism,” Father Salvas explained.

His move south reflects “the strong desire of the friars as a whole” to expand ministry to the Southeast, he said.

A native of Beacon, N.Y., Father Salvas, 31, was ordained four years ago and has been pastoral associate at Immaculate Conception Friary in the Bronx, N.Y. since 1989. He was director of Franciscan candidates from 1989 through 1991.

He is excited to be going to a new region of the country, he said, and particularly enthusiastic about serving a community rich in African-American culture and tradition.

“It attracts me,” he said. “I’m going there as a student, I want to learn.”

His facility in Spanish, learned in the Dominican Republic some years ago, has helped him at Immaculate Conception, which, with its ethnic and racial mix, is “a wonderful place to work,” Father Salvas said.

“Franciscans as a whole tend to be flexible,” he said. “We want to work with all peoples.”

One of six children from a close French-Canadian family, Father Salvas said his family, too, is enthused about his opportunity to break new Franciscan ground in the South.

“They’re anxious to go down and visit me there,” he said.

Ordained less than six months, Father Robert Jones, OFM, Cap., said he feels positive about serving as parochial vicar in the predominantly black Catholic community at St. Anthony’s.

Father Jones, 35, was received into the Catholic Church at the age of 12 and attended an integrated church in his hometown of East Orange, N.J. Being immersed in African-American culture at St. Anthony’s, he said, should be “spiritually renewing” for him as a black Catholic.

“There is a lot St. Anthony’s and Lourdes can teach the whole province,” he said, “an aspect of spirituality and community not yet experienced” by a religious community whose ministry has until recently been limited to the Northeast.

Father Jones has long been interested in peace and justice issues. He worked as a factory union organizer before joining the Franciscans and his travels to Kenya, China, Italy and Latin America have given him a realistic global perspective, he said.

He is presently chairman of the North American Capuchin Committee for Peace, Justice and Ecology, a post he has held for two years. The group of American and Canadian friars draws attention to issues of social justice within the province.

Two summers spent in the Dominican Republic prepared Father Jones for his current assignment at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Paterson, N.J., a predominantly Hispanic parish.

There he has particularly enjoyed teaching teenagers, drawing out their “adolescent spirituality,” he said.

Although a native Northeastern, Father Jones and his three siblings have enjoyed family reunions in Virginia for the past 20 years. One of his sisters now lives in Tennessee with his mother and he is pleased to be closer to them.

“I’m really looking forward” to coming to Atlanta, he said.