I don’t know about you, but I find that it can be a bit difficult to gauge a person’s demeanor or mood over email exchanges. Not so with Father Robert “Bob” Sieg, OFM. He’s effusive, uses lots of exclamation marks, and asks how the weather is where I am in Cincinnati, Ohio. And he’s funny. I am a sucker for a well-honed, self-deprecating sense of humor, and Father Bob is a master.
Reading through his responses to my interview questionnaire, I found myself chuckling over some of his candid replies. But beneath the warm and friendly exterior is a person deeply committed to the Gospel and his Franciscan identity.
Impressed by the Sense of Peace
Like many in the Franciscan world, Father Bob somewhat meandered toward religious life and had some other plans for his future when he was in high school and college—including becoming either a bus driver or airplane pilot. Raised in a Catholic family with one older sister in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Father Bob went to a large Catholic grade school (with over 2,500 students) and attended weekly Mass with his family at what he described as a “large, booming parish. I did not want to be an altar server since that would mean memorizing Latin—and my memory has never been good!”
When the time came to select a Catholic high school, Bob noticed a nearby Franciscan high school that had recently opened up, and he was intrigued. His friends warned him, “They have mean monks who beat you with their ropes.” However, Bob took the plunge, and fortunately for him, his friends were wrong. Father Bob recalls: “My experience was the complete opposite. The friars really cared about the students, and they wanted us to find true happiness in our lives. Yes, every now and then we got ‘the rope.’ It was never a beating, but rather a knock on our desks to keep our attention!”
At Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio, Father Bob was exposed early on to the service and ministry mindset of the friars. “I got involved in a group called the DePaduans,” he recalls. “On Saturday mornings, about eight of us would go to an orphanage so that the sisters [who ran it] could take time to run errands, go shopping, etc.”
On Fridays, Bob and a group of students visited a hospice home to help religious sisters in that ministry. These early encounters with the Franciscan charism gently, slowly reeled Bob in. Not long before high school graduation, a friar named Father Ray Steffen invited Bob to visit a seminary in Quincy, Illinois, for a few days in a retreat-like setting. It was there that Bob first sensed the deep peace of the friars living in community. In fact, he could tell that life in community was a pillar of the Franciscan way and not merely a detail.
“It’s hard to explain, but I felt a joy in my heart,” Father Bob says. “So, I decided to give it a try. I told my family, friends, and girlfriend (right before prom) my plans to enter the seminary.” The collective reaction from everyone: “You have got to be kidding me!” But Bob wasn’t joking, not this time. There was an abiding peace he sensed in the friar community that was impossible for him to ignore.
Accompanying Others in the Spirit of St. Francis
Father Bob was just about as shocked as everyone else, as this was an epiphany more than a self-realization. But he stuck with it, went through nine years of Franciscan formation, and, in 1975, was ordained a priest.
He was originally sent back home to Cleveland to help a priest he referred to as a “living saint”—Father Berard Scarborough, who worked as a hospital chaplain, was engaged in prison ministry, and founded the Cleveland chapter of a Matt Talbot House for those struggling with substance abuse. It was at this time that Father Bob gained some much-needed experience in the area’s parishes.When Father Berard suffered a massive stroke and passed away, Father Bob says it took three friars to handle his workload.
Father Bob was moved into his order’s vocation office, heading up that ministry for nine years. During that time, he estimates that he “walked together with 1,000 young men trying to help them discern God’s call in their lives.” After his nine years in vocation ministry, and at the urging of the provincial leadership, it was time to move on.
Father Bob spent time working in campus ministry and ministering to a retirement community of friars before landing where he currently serves: Franciscan Connection in St. Louis.
Founded 35 years ago by two Franciscan friars, Franciscan Connection is the definition of a boots-on-the-ground ministry. The friars rented a storefront in an economically challenged section of south St. Louis with the goal of providing emergency financial assistance to single mothers and elderly in the community. Over the years, 12 friars have been involved in this ministry, and now Father Bob and another friar—Father Frank Coens, OFM—are at the helm.
One of the principal services Franciscan Connection provides is utility bill assistance. “Everyone who visits us will receive hospitality, [and] no one is turned away,” reads a line from their website, FranciscanConnection.org. After a consultation, clients are eligible to receive $50 to help pay their utility bills.
A constant challenge is the aging of Franciscan friars—something many ministries grapple with across the United States. “I am facing the challenges of aging and now have poor hearing,” Father Bob says. “Even though I have hearing aids, many times I have great difficulty in hearing confession. I also found out that many people love to go to confession to a ‘deaf priest’!”
Though both Father Bob and Father Frank are in their 70s, there is quite a bit of interest from young volunteers, including a number of Secular Franciscans who make follow-up calls with clients to check in on how they’re doing. It all flows from the Franciscan spirit.
“Even though we face challenges, I love the spirit of St. Francis,” says Father Bob. “We do the best we can and leave the rest in the hands of God!”
