Southwest Franciscan Missions is the mission/development office of the Province and is located at the Provincial House in Albuquerque. This location physically places it between the Navajo, Pueblo and Hispanic missions that are served by the friars of Our Lady of Guadalupe Province. The office on its mission side engages in fundraising to supply the financial assistance that supports the friars and ministries in the Navajo, Pueblo, Hispanic and foreign missions. On the development side, it provides subsistence to the Province's elderly and retired friars, and supports its young men in seminary/formation training. 

If you would like more information from this office, or would wish to make a donation to the Province'smission work or development work, then please call or write Br. Bruce at:

Southwest Franciscan Missions
P.O. Box 12395
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195-0395

Phone: (505) 877-8006
Fax: (505) 452-1999
Email: [email protected]

Southwest Franciscan Missions Origin

In 1984, the Provincial Chapter of St. John the Baptist, the highest goverining body of the Province, met for the first time in the Southwest, and decades of disussion of the idea, the friars voted to petition the general administration of the Franciscan Order in Rome On the third of January, 1985, the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe was formally erected by decree of the Most Reverand John Vaughn, the Minister General of Friars Minor, who was present in the Cathedral of St. Francis in Santa Fe for the occasion.

Approximately 100 friars, all but a few living and working in the Southwest,  became the founding members of the new Province.  At the time, the friars were working among the Navajo and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, as well as the Hispanic people in a number of parishes.  They were soon to be involved in the ministry of the Word, preaching retreats, and parish missions. The Province’s headquarters was first established in rented quarters in Albuquerque, then moved to  Tepeyac House on Five Points Road before relocating to the current Lakeview Road address in 1991.

New members came slowly to discern their vocation with the friars each year.  These new men could not offset the number of friars who died or left the Order.  As a result, some of the friars’ mission was relinquished to others in 1985.  In 2000, the ministry of St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, which had been staffed by the friars under Franciscan Archbishop Albert Daeger was since 1920, was returned to the Archdiocese.  In 1994 the friars stepped out in faith, committed two members to missions in Peru, and maintained a presence until 2003.  The friars continued to work with lay ministers among the Navajo, Pueblo, and Hispanics of the Southwest and with the ministry of the Word.  In 1987, the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque began as an exciting joint effort of Franciscan friar Richard Rohr and many lay people to find new ways to shore up the Word of God.