Missionary Profile: Fr. Sylvester Mary Mann, CFR

Fr. Sylvester Mary Mann, CFR, arrived last week in Sudan to serve as a missionary here for six months. He been here twice before as part of visiting missionary teams in 2009 and 2010. We're very happy he's here and are grateful the Lord has sent him to us. We'd like to take this opportunity to introduce him to you:

Fr. Sylvester Mary Mann, CFR was born and raised in Philadelphia. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the Marine Corps where he served on active duty for six years and two in the reserves. While serving on the Marine Security Force in Iceland Fr Sylvester experienced a deepening of his faith which opened his heart to discover his vocation as a Franciscan Friar and Priest. He first met the Friars of the Renewal during a pilgrimage to Medjugorge in 1990, and visited them soon after in New York when Fr Herald was still a novice. After being discharged from the Marines, Fr. Sylvester completed college at California State University in 1995, entered the CFRs in 1996, and made final vows in 2001. He studied theology at St. Joseph Seminary (Dunwoodie, Yonkers, NY) and was ordained a priest in 2003.

As a friar, Fr. Sylvester has served in a number of roles: assistant pro-life coordinator, director of liturgy, community secretary, director of St. Anthony Residence for homeless men, and as local vicar in the Bronx and at our friaries in both Limerick and Derry in Ireland. He is also currently the spiritual director for Youth 2000 in Ulster County, Ireland.

Besides the usual CFR work with the poor and destitute, Fr. Sylvester’s pastoral activity includes preaching at youth retreats, parish missions and other spiritual events. He gives spiritual direction and pastoral advice, particularly to those who have been involved New Age practices. His recent assignments have been in Limerick, Ireland, where our friary is located in Moyross, a neighborhood infamous for its feuding drug gangs, and in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the very neighborhood where the notorious Bloody Sunday killings of peaceful demonstrators took place in 1971 and a stronghold of IRA. In Ireland he’s also assisted our CFR religious brothers in their outreach to local families by accompanying them for home visits and house blessings.

Fr. Sylvester has been active in all aspects of pro-life work: praying outside of abortion centers, post-abortion healing ministry, working to establish Priests for Life Ireland, offering spiritual encouragement to pro-life groups, speaking at pro life rallies. In the past year he’s written regular articles for the Catholic Voice (www.catholicvoice.ie), a new Irish newspaper, and did a recent video spot for EWTN Ireland concerning the protection of embryos in Ireland (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiV-prgNJn4). He hopes his efforts will in some small way help to spread the sparks of renewal in Ireland where the Church is in desperate need as it is in so many places.

At this time, Fr. Sylvester says he is now honored to be serving the people of God in Southern Sudan, especially at this critical time in their history.


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