A word from Br. Bobby Barbato about hospital ministry in Fresno (111k)

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History of the Friars in Fresno

In the spring of 1968 Eunan Buckley arrived in Fresno. He lived in the cathedral rectory while ministering at nearby Community Hospital. Later that same year Valerian O’Leary and Cyprian O’Leary (not related) arrived in town, and the three friars moved into St. Genevieve parish. The parish was a small Chinese mission, and its boundaries included only one square block! The friars cared for the parish as well as serving as chaplains in three area hospitals. As Stanley Miltenberger, who came from the Pennsylvania Province to aid the friars in the west for a while, said of hospital work:

"Any hospital is...a little world in itself. The whole tempo of hospital life is one of feverish activity...the chaplain finds himself in a positio4n more like the pastor of a small, floating parish."

The Capuchins worked at the county hospital, Valley Medical Center, the Veteran's Administration Hospital, and Fresno Community Hospital. They also for a number of years did part time work at St. Agnes Hospital, which is run by the Holy Cross Sisters.

Bishop Hugh Donohoe, who succeeded Timothy Manning, offered the friars a new residence, in the old minor seminary. The friars occupied the old teachers quarters in the building, which was located next to San Joaquin Memorial High School. The new friary was quiet and more spacious, and the friars were happy to move there. The Capuchins in Fresno were able to do other work in addition to their hospital duties. There were parish help-outs, and one year Bro. Gregory Coiro taught with the Christian Brothers and Holy Cross Sisters at San Joaquin Memorial.

In 1973, Bishop Donohoe mentioned to the friars that there was an opening for chaplain at the State Hospital in Porterville, which served the mentally handicapped. Bro. Evangelist asked Tim Joe (Irenaeus) O’Sullivan if he would consider the position, and he gladly took it up. He spent the next nine years in Porterville, which is about 70 miles from Fresno, serving in a ministry which he deemed one of the best of his life.