Fr. Stan Fortuna

So last weekend was the big weekend at my parish with Fr. Stan Fortuna of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Overall, my impressions were good. The theme of his conferences was True Freedom taken from a statement made by the Holy Father, True freedom is borne of holiness. He spoke to kids and adults of all ages about the importance of striving to live holy lives in the face of a culture of death - that this is the only way we can be truly free and affect change in our culture and in our society. He stressed frequent confession and communion as ways in which this could be embraced, and he exhorted us to be courageous and sincere when confronting moral evils that distract us from living a holy life, things such as pornography and material wealth for its own good.

His particular style of preaching is definitely more appealing to the youth, as he used a lot of rap terminology to communicate his message. You can hear him in mpeg format at his website. The Sunday evening mass that he celebrated drew a packed house, standing room only, that lasted close to 1 hour and 45 minutes! I could tell that Fr. Stan had a profound respect for Our Lord in the Eucharist.

However, I should say that there were things that I found difficult to follow. The conference I attended on Saturday evening began with Fr. Stan addressing the theme and some various anecdotes related to the importance of integrating the struggle for holiness into one's complete, daily life. This means being consistent and not choosing to do things that may pressure you to compromise your faith and respect for others in other areas of your life. He then jumped into the issue of abortion by composing and singing a song about an aborted child telling his mother from Heaven, "I forgive you." A good song, though perhaps a little heavy for some of the younger kids there, but there wasn't really any transition that explained to me how helping a mother embrace forgiveness after an abortion related to me embracing the struggle for holiness in my everyday life - but I think I got the gist of what he was saying, concerning how living out the call to holiness affects our culture positively and about how embracing the forgiveness Jesus offers us and grace He gives us in the sacraments is the first step to realizing the call to holiness.

He seemed like a great guy as well as an extremely talented musician, and he further reinforced my high opinion of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in the South Bronx. Having heard him as well as Fr. Benedict Groeschel speak, I can truly see how dynamic this religious order is. Always in service of the poor, they each manifest different talents which they use to effectively communicate the Gospel message to the world around them.


Fr. Stan at age 14


Fr. Stan today

More fun pictures, as well as music samples and schedules at Fr. Stan's production company website, Francesco Productions.