When it was announced in 2012 that the Capuchin Franciscan friars would be leaving St. Joseph Parish in Hays, Kan., which they had staffed since 1878, church organist Kevin Rupp sent an email to then-provincial Fr. Charles Polifka that said, "Say it isn't so." Sadly, it was so, and within a year, a 135-year tenure came to an end.

While many of our younger friars are well versed in the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, people from an older generation often balk at the use of social media. Most of our older friars do not check-in with their current location on Facebook, do not spend hours....

Those who admire or seek to imitate St. Francis of Assisi often speak of a “Franciscan spirituality,” but an authentic spirituality must be rooted in a sound theology, a way of understanding God and God's relationship to his creation.

Ever since he was a child, Fr. John Toepfer, O.F.M. Cap., longed to be a Capuchin priest. Born and reared in Hays, Kan., as one of seven children of Anthony and Mary Alice Toepfer, friars staffed his local parish and others throughout northwest Kansas, as well as a high school and seminary.

For nearly a century the Capuchins had been serving in the wide flat lands and prairies of Kansas when need summoned us to Colorado. A poor, inner-city parish in a high crime neighborhood of Denver was in need of a priest.