Calabria, Father Michael

Michaels concerns for the homeless brought him to the door of the Franciscan Friary on West 31st Street in New York City to talk to a friar. He joined the order as an affiliate and eventually decided to profess vows as a brother and later he was ordained a priest by Bishop Emil Wcela at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City. He gave up a successful career and home in Manhattan. Father Calabria is a graduate of Bethpage High School where he was a good student and obsessed with Egypt. He later received a master’s in Egyptology, a bachelor of arts in near Eastern studies and a master’s in library science, theology, and divinity. He is fluent in Arabic and currently pursuing a PhD. in Scripture. As a Franciscan Brother he served and cared for 800 men, women, and children with leprosy (today known as Hansen’s Disease) in a government clinic near Cairo. His next assignment will be to teach Scripture at the Theology Department of Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York. (from THE LONG ISLAND CATHOLIC 7/02/03)