Welcome to the website for the Capuchin Vocation Office of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in the upper Midwest, USA.

   Our website is designed with pages listed to the left that will answer many of your questions about Capuchin life and ministry. If you have other questions or want to talk with a Capuchin Vocation Director, select the Contact tab to the left.

Thanks for visiting.       

Fr. William Hugo
Capuchin Vocation Director  

Upcoming Vocation Events


June 14-15
Admissions Board to Postulancy

August 19
Postulancy begins

Visit the new Vocation Office Blog for 

* News
* Upcoming Events (Details)
* Recent Events

       and reflections on:
* Discernment
* Franciscan Spirituality
* Stories from men in
        Capuchin Formation
*Biblical Calls
*Faith and Technology
*and more

There are a great variety of religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church. A Capuchin is a Franciscan who follows St. Francis of Assisi. The Midwest Capuchins-Franciscans have a territory that includes the states of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Montana. Major cities included in our territory are the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit. Click here to find out all the places where a Midwest Capuchin Franciscan lives today.

 
Capuchin Franciscan ministries
   

Each religious order has its own charism or mission in the church. As a Franciscan, each Capuchin’s primary goal is to build sister-brother as often as possible. As Franciscans, Capuchin share a brotherhood with one another. Some of the brothers also share in the ministerial priesthood. Capuchins also preach, teach, cook and counsel. Capuchins minister in hospitals, schools, soup kitchens and jails. They are Franciscan pastors, artists, missionaries, youth ministers and writers. Click here to see a list of ministries offered by Capuchin Franciscans in the Midwest.

Capuchin Formation

Religious Orders use lots of unfamiliar words to describe the process of entering. Candidacy, postulants, novitiates, priesthood, lay brothers, and seminaries are just some of the words in the jargon of religious life. Click here for a simple explanation of the process for becoming a Capuchin Franciscan. 

Looking for a Capuchin seminary?

Everyone knows the number of seminaries in the USA has diminished. The only Capuchin Franciscan Seminary in the Midwest is St. Lawrence Seminary High School in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. The Midwest Capuchins send their seminarians to Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago, Illinois for theology and pre-theology. The province sponsors college-aged Capuchin candidates at the Chicago Archdiocesan St. Joseph College Seminary on the campus of Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to learn more about the Capuchin College Seminary Program at St. Joseph College Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

Videos of the Province's Franciscan life and ministry 
   

Click here to visit our YouTube channel to find videos depicting the House of Peace ministry for poor people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit, Michigan. You'll also find a great video about St. Lawrence Seminary in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. Yet another video introduces you to Capuchin ministries throughout the province, including in Montana; Chicago, Illinois; Indiana; Minnesota; and Central America. Finally, our YouTube channel contains various Vlogs and other videos made by the men in our formation program.

Franciscan History

The Capuchin friary at Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin is the oldest functioning Capuchin Franciscan establishment in North America. Click here to read more history about the Franciscans, the Capuchins, and the Midwest Capuchins.

Links

Are you looking for a different website of the Midwest  Capuchin Franciscans? Click here to find a list of Midwest Capuchin websites for Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Panama. You can also find links to our provincial development offices in Detroit, Michigan; and Milwaukee or Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.