Your generous donations have allowed the Foundation to contribute greatly to our Province this year! We have paid for the tuition of Friar Wayne Mulei for his 2026 spring semester and look forward to assisting the Province again to cover his final year of theological studies. We also paid for Friar Vu’s tuition in San Francisco for further English language instruction and plan to pay in full for his B.S. in Health Science (approximately $30K per year). We anticipate that Friar Israel will need $15K per year in graduate school tuition for his doctoral studies in Rome which we are pleased to provide. Thanks be to God, successful recruitment and formation around the country has resulted in seven new novices who will move into the Novitiate in July, with at least twelve postulants beginning their formation journey in Chicago this fall. We look forward to supporting them both in prayer and in substance over the next few years.
The generosity of those who contribute to the Viva Francis Foundation is remarkable! We are pleased to announce that we were able to contribute another $11,153.00 to the Province towards the cost of tuition and living expenses for those friars still in theological studies in December of 2023. As those costs continue to rise, and we hope to have more friars from our Province on the path to holy orders in the near future, remember that this would be a blessed way to remember a departed family member or friend as a near term donation or bequest in your will.
The Viva Francis Foundation is very grateful to the Province for giving us a lovely office space at the Novitiate in Arroyo Grande. We were able to assist the Province in March 2023 when the well pump at the Novitiate failed and needed to be replaced on an emergency basis (the novices had five days without running water but improvised remarkably well!). The Foundation granted the Novitiate just under $2,900. for the repairs which is a small recompense for the years of free rent we have received. Additionally we finished distributing the additional monies that have continued to come in from our December 2021 fundraiser (another $8000. towards the housing and tuition costs for the friars in San Antonio).
In December of 2021 the Viva Francis Foundation began a fundraising campaign to raise money for the expense of housing and tuition for the four friars in theological studies in San Antonio. Due to our donors’ wonderful generosity we were able to contribute over $23,000. to the Province in 2022 for this purpose. The Foundation was also able to provide six new chairs for the use of the novices currently living and studying at the Novitiate in Arroyo Grande.
Initially the Foundation was focused on supporting the Provincial friars in existing apostolic ministries within California including funding a food pantry in San Francisco at St. Paul of the Shipwreck parish.
In 2016 the Foundation provided $300,000 to erect a classroom and housing building in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam which was completed in 2019 and is currently fully occupied. We also granted an additional $50,000 in 2018 and then a matching grant of $35,000 in March of 2019 for operational expenses in Vietnam.
As the ministries in Vietnam continue to grow, so do vocations! We hope to participate in major new construction projects anticipated to begin over the next few years.
The Foundation was honored to approve a grant of $50,000 to the Province in January, 2022, for the replacement of the windows at the Provincial Friary in Castro Valley.
vivafrancismail@gmail.com | PO Box 518, Arroyo Grande, CA, 93421-0518