Spiritual Advisors
Fr. Christian T. Moore, OFM Conv. As MHI’s Spiritual Advisor, Fr. Christian shares a life of ministry as a teacher, campus minister, hospital chaplain, and pastor. Born in Denver in 1938, Fr. Christian attended grade school in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1952, he went to Mount St. Francis and has been with the Franciscans ever since. He went to college at the University of Dayton and Theological Seminary in Chaska, Minnesota.
In 1971, Fr. Christian spent the summer serving in Honduras. Since then, he has visited the missions in Honduras four times, leading two of his parishes on a short visit.
Fr. Christian holds an MA from Assumption Seminary (1965) and an MA from the University of Minnesota (History and Sociology, 1965). In 1969 he earned his professional principal’s license. And, in 1979, he received a D. Min. (Doctor of Ministries) from Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.
Throughout his years of ministry, Fr. Christian has been a teacher and principle at Mount St. Francis (1965-75) where he organized youth retreats, Junior Third Order, men's retreats, and was the coordinator of Released Time Education for Floyd County. He has been a campus minister (1976-81); a hospital chaplain (1983-85); Pastor of St. Joseph in Chicago Heights (1985-1990); Pastor of St. Anthony in Lorain, Ohio (1990-2000); and a Spiritual Assistant, Secular Franciscans (2001-02).
Since 2002, Fr. Christian has been the Pastor of Incarnation Parish in Louisville. He writes, “I want to do all I can to help heal the situation with the Honduran/Liberian Missions. The ministry is so important.”
Fr. Donald Halpin, OFM Conv., Spiritual Advisor. I was born in Toledo, Ohio, May 23, 1943, son of Donald Cass Halpin and Blanche Marie (Welter); we were seven siblings, and I was the youngest. My family calls me Philip. Then as Friar Donald, my first profession as a Conventual Franciscan took place in July 1962; then I was ordained a priest, July 1972. Parish work involved positions in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Louisville, Kentucky. Retreat work then has taken the greater portion of my priesthood, working in Franciscan Retreats in Prior Lake, Minnesota; Mount St. Francis, Indiana; Carey, Ohio. Also for five years, I worked in a freelance retreat ministry while living in Canton, Ohio. During that time I was giving parish missions, along with frequent retreats, especially one-on-one directed retreats for segments of eight to thirty days.
After a preliminary visit in Africa, 1984-1985, I returned as a missionary in 1996 and worked in Zambia and other countries of Africa (including Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya). In Lusaka, Zambia, I directed a house of prayer called Assisi House, located at St Bonaventure College in Lusaka. Again, those were a lot of directed retreats, along with ongoing spiritual direction. I said goodbye to Africa in July 2008, and I am presently located at a retreat center at Mount St. Francis, Indiana. The lovely hills of southern Indiana are a pleasant home, living in a community of twelve Franciscan priests and brothers, and the work of retreats continues on. A specialty within the retreat work of Mt. St. Francis continues to be directed retreats. In a house on the property – Loftus House – private and directed retreats are offered in a “house of prayer” setting. I am presently director of that house. I enjoy striving to practice meditation, deeper prayer styles, prayer with Scripture.
After years of serving in Africa, I am interested in making sure Mission Honduras International continues a Franciscan identity in what has been started in Mission Liberia. I feel we as Franciscans have an easily formed bond with Africans. Their love of the soil, love of creation, all fits into our spirituality. The people of Africa have a beauty all their own: when blessed with a happy smile, self-confidence, and hope for the future, their countenance is beautiful – full of life.
