About the Author
This site is written and maintained by Stephen N. DeWitt, OFM. I am a Franciscan Friar (OFM) of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, NY, NY.
I am currently living in Silver Spring, MD and studying in Washington, D.C. in preparation for being ordained a priest in May of 2012. I have one more year of theology to complete here in Washington. In addition to my studies I also serve on my Province’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Directorate (JPIC). We are currently working on the issues of immigration reform, hydraulic fracturing, the federal budget, and a proposed pipeline from the Canadian tar sand into the U.S.
I grew up in Buffalo, NY (Go Bills!! Go Sabres!!) where I lived until leaving for college. I graduated from Canisius High School in Buffalo and attended St. Bonaventure University in Olean, NY (about 70 miles south of Buffalo). In 2004 I graduated with an Honors B.A. in History and Theology. I then spent a year studying theology at the Graduate level at the University of Dayton before entering the Franciscans. I am a student at the Washington Theological Union where I am completing the final year of my studies for a Master of Divinity degree in theology.
My journey into the Franciscans in some sense started when I was a child. Both of my parents are member of the Secular Franciscan Order and I grew up in a very Franciscan household. I read about and knew St. Francis from a young age and fell in love with his life and story. I first felt the call to priesthood and religious life in high school, but it wasn’t until college that I began serious discernment. St. Bonaventure was founded by the order I now belong to to and it was there that I began to really get to know the Franciscans and to understand the way of life. I eventually became involved with a men’s vocation group there and began serious investigation of friar life. The decisive moment came on a trip with the vocation group to Rome and Assisi. It was in Assisi, surrounded by the places where Francis lived, the stones he touched, the buildings he saw that i knew where I belonged. It would be another year before I actually entered, but I knew then.
What attracts me to the Franciscans is both the community life we live and the life of St. Francis himself. Francis dedicated himself to following the Gospel in a way that was open, loving and simple. He sought to be close to the poor and to call all people to true life in Jesus Christ. He was also willing to challenge the structures and institutions of his day through the kind of life he lived. I understand my own vocation as a call to live the social justice of the Church and to call others to that same justice.
You can contact me at sdewittofm@afranciscanabroad.com
