Church of Inarajan, Guam.

By this time the crisis had been left behind. With the novitiate opened and hope recovered, the Province was beginning to look to the future with a new sense of illusion. In this same year, following a visit from the Provincial, the Province ratified its commitment to the archipelago. But now the commitment would not be full-blown. Experience had manifested the need to diversify the terrain, and therefore, they were to continue with the already opened ministries in other countries.

Cathedral of Shanghai, Henan, China.

In the Philippines, during the first three decades, the Province was almost limited to mere survival; satisfying itself with the recovery, as far as possible, of the situation prior to the revolution. Almost all the Religious were working in the parochial ministry. This exclusivity did not satisfy all of the Religious. Nevertheless the Province was unable to find a suitable replacement. It lacked imagination, experience and decision.

Neither community-discipline nor pastoral-discipline were experiencing their finest moment. Still and all, little by little, encouraging new developments were beginning to appear. In 1910 the Holy See entrusted them with the Apostolic Prefecture of Palawan, the first in the Philippines. In 1924, the long cherished dream of being part of the epic missions to China took form.

The mission of Kweiteh (now Shangqiu) reached special significance. The province attended to it with great care, serving it with a relatively large number of self-sacrificing Religious. Unfortunately, after the Communist rise to power (1949), the foreign Missionaries had to abandon the country. In our mission there remained nine native Religious Friars and some Religious Sisters, who have continued to fertilise the mission with their blood and their heroism. 

In a short space of time - from 1959 to 1987 - the Recollects stripped themselves of their emblem of both Missionary and Parish Priest of marginalized zones, in order to sheathe themselves in that of Utterly Urban Educator.

The most transcendental innovation took place in 1949 with the opening of the novitiate in Manila to native vocations. The Chapter of 1934 had recommended ‘efficaciously’ the opening of formation houses in the Philippines, England and Venezuela. In the Philippines the recommendation did not take effect until the period following the world war. It would even be fitting to add that the interest in native Philippine vocations only acquired validity 10 years later. With the exception of the anecdotal ordination of Father Salvador Calsado in 1945, the first group of Philippine vocations would not reach the priesthood until 1959. From this date onwards there was a sparseness of interest and, logically, also of vocations. Towards the end of 1997, there were 144 professed Philippine Friars in the Province.

The Death of St. Augustine, Vela Zanetti, San Cristóbal, The Dominican Republic.

With the approach of 1925 the Recollect presence in Venezuela began to take a new course. The number of Religious increase; their presence in the cities rise; their own foundations come to the fore; the apostolate of the written and spoken press flourishes (La Madre Cristiana, 1927); the first seminary for indigenous vocations arises (1935), and in Caracus, the college of Fray Luis de León opens its doors (1941). At this juncture, the city begins to take the place of the countryside and the educational activities begin to compete with the traditional parochial monopoly.

The foundations of England and Peru have similar beginnings. At the onset of 1932 the anarchy of the Spanish Republic prompted the Superiors to look for a convent outside of Spain for the formation of its students. In 1939 fear of the political instability in Venezuela led them to Peru in search of a bedrock which could give refuge to Venezuelan Religious in the eventuality of having to leave the country.

Events didn’t take long in revealing the validity of both of these recourses. From 1932 to 1950 England gave refuge to various theology graduates, and, from 1935 onwards, gave various vocations to the Order. In Peru, two groups of theology students found sanctuary. These two groups could not possibly have been provided for in Spain due to the economic straits derived from the world war. 

In 1974 the Province took charge of a parish on the island of Guam. The Bishop had called on them on the strength of the memory of the dozens of Recollects who had laboured on Guam from 1770 to 1908. Another factor, which influenced the decision of the Province, was the convenience of having an intermediate post - on which they could count - for the Religious who were leaving the Philippines en route to the United States. They left fifteen years later (1st June 1989) having found themselves faced with the impossibility of consolidating their presence on such a small island already sufficiently attended to by the secular clergy and the Capuchin Friars.