From physics lab to friary—and back again

Brother Antonio Moualeu, O.F.M.Conv. gives a science lab demonstration to a family attending a St. Francis High School open house. (Photo courtesy of St. Francis High School, Athol Springs, New York)

AS A PHYSICS TEACHER with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, Brother Antonio Moualeu, O.F.M.Conv. can clearly explain Newton’s Second Law of Motion, which pertains to the forces involved in the acceleration of an object.

Moualeu can also explain, on a personal level, how nonphysical forces can sometimes cause amazing changes in one’s own trajectory. In his life, for instance, there was the time in 2004 when his father won the “green card lottery,” and his family moved from the Central African country of Cameroon to Dallas. And then there were the times when questions about his faith propelled him to get involved at the Newman Center at Texas A&M, where he completed his undergraduate degree, and at Georgia Tech, where he completed his doctorate. And there was the time in 2015 when Moualeu stopped to talk to a couple of Franciscan friars at the Eucharistic Congress in Atlanta—the force of that encounter was so strong that it catapulted him into a new life.

Today, the kid from Cameroon who became the engineer in Texas is now the friar in New York. “If you had told the 15-year-old me what I’d be doing today—well, there’s no way I could have even fathomed it,” he says. On August 14, 2023, Moualeu made his solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience at St. Francis High School Chapel in Athol Springs, New York, about 10 miles south of Buffalo. More than two dozen family members and about 70 friars gathered to celebrate the milestone in Moualeu’s journey of becoming a Franciscan brother, a member of the Franciscan Friars Conventual.

Drawn to a life of ministry

His journey officially began when he entered what is called a “postulancy year” in 2017, but of course in reality it began much earlier. As the third of four children in his family, Moualeu grew up in Douala, Cameroon’s largest city. He enjoyed music and academics. “We weren’t ardent, uber Catholics, but we were raised in virtue, and we went to Mass pretty regularly,” he says. Moualeu graduated from a Jesuit high school in Douala shortly before his family moved to Dallas. He enrolled in community college and then transferred to Texas A&M.

While in graduate school at Georgia Tech, Moualeu began considering religious life; he credits the campus Catholic center with kindling his interest. “It was a very active community, and a lot of guys were discerning [priesthood] for the archdiocese,” he notes. He did too, but soon realized that was not his call. “I was living in Georgia, but my family was in Texas, and I was from Cameroon—it just didn’t make sense.”

He kept discerning. A friend who was also considering religious life shared information about the Franciscans with him. While his friend ultimately took a different path, it was that information that made Moualeu stop and talk with the Franciscans at the Eucharistic Congress. Soon after, he met with the vocation director for the order’s Our Lady of the Angels province, which covers the eastern and southern part of the United States. He visited a friary (Franciscan living quarters) in Jonesborough, Georgia and was invited to the order’s “Come and See” weekend in Ellicott City, Maryland. That event provided a startling flash of assurance.

“It felt like a big sign”

“‘Come and See’ answered my questions in a way that was pretty clear this was desired for me,” Moualeu says. He hit it off with the friars and his fellow discerners. But what swayed him most was a talk on the Franciscan life presented by one of the friars. “His talk had seven points, and those points corresponded to seven spiritual experiences I’d had,” Moualeu says. “It felt like a big sign.” By the end of the weekend, he sensed he would be joining the community.

Even with such strong assurance, though, Moualeu felt that it was still a wild choice to make. “I didn’t know any Franciscans before this,” he says. “I didn’t really know what a Franciscan was.” When he met again with the vocation director, they agreed that Moualeu would enter not the following year but the year after so that he could focus on his studies and learn more about the order.

In 2017 Moualeu embarked on his first step to joining the community, a postulancy year in Chicago, where postulants from all the Conventual Franciscan U.S. provinces go to be introduced to the Franciscan tradition and communal life. In 2018 he spent his novitiate year (a more formal preparation period) in Arroyo Grande, California. There he received the habit and continued living the life—participating in corporate prayer, preparing meals, engaging in ministry, and meeting with his formators to get a better sense of his vocation. (Formators are those charged with teaching and guiding those joining the community.)

“All formation during these two years is in-house, and it is great formation,” Moualeu says. At the end of his novitiate year, he was given the opportunity to finish the doctoral program he had started, so in 2019 he moved into a house of formation in San Antonio and re-enrolled at Georgia Tech, planning to work remotely. He ended up with plenty of company when COVID-19 required other students living in the house to work remotely as well. He received his Ph.D. in May of 2022.

Back to physics, his early love

While Moualeu was in San Antonio, he also worked at a parish and shadowed a science teacher at Holy Cross High School. This was in preparation for his apostolic year, when new Franciscans integrate spiritual life, community life, and ministry before they take solemn vows. In the summer of 2022, he started his apostolic year in Hamburg, New York, where he was assigned to work as a religion teacher at St. Francis High School, an all-boys school on Lake Erie. Halfway through the year, the school had an opening in the science department, and Moualeu was thrilled to be able to fill in. Now he teaches four sections of physics and serves as moderator for the school’s fledgling robotics club. “Teaching was always at the top of my list of potential ministries, and now I’m teaching what I love,” he says.

He lives with seven other friars at St. Francis of Assisi Friary; six of them work at the school. Their day starts with prayer at 6:45 a.m. at the friary, then Mass at the school chapel at 7:20. School starts at 8:10, and it’s a whirl of prepping, teaching, setting up labs, and grading. After school, Moualeu is with the robotics club and is available for physics help if students need it. He’s back at the friary at 5 p.m. for evening prayer and dinner. (One of the friars attended the Culinary Institute of America. “He’s a great cook,” Moualeu says. “If a friar has talents like that, they’re definitely encouraged to flourish.”)

Brotherhood is the right fit

While some Franciscan friars are priests, Moualeu hasn’t felt called to that vocation. He has considered it but found that when he’s at Mass, he doesn’t have the desire to be on the other side of the altar. “I’d rather be where the choir is, or on the piano, or participating in the pews,” he says. “I realized during my formation that I am called to the life—not to the priesthood. At least not now.”

In addition to work and prayer, life in Hamburg includes plenty of fun. “The thing about community is that even if you’re an introvert, you will still do a lot of things,” he says. With his brothers, he has gotten to explore the local area. “The views here are amazing. The sunsets are amazing. You do get the winter weather, but it’s just gorgeous here.” He has visited Niagara Falls, taken in his first hockey game, and enjoyed music recitals and other cultural events. At Canisius University in nearby Buffalo, he recently attended a lecture by Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., director of the Vatican Observatory. Moualeu was eager to hear from a fellow religious brother-scientist. “One of the things he said that struck me was that the study of science is his prayer. And it’s true—studying the wonders of God’s creation, that’s what we’re doing in science.”

When Moualeu looks back on his journey to this point, he is amazed at how, as a friar, he is able to be more of himself. Before joining the Franciscans, he says, “I thought that I might have to give up everything that was important to me. I didn’t realize that down the line, parts of my previous life would be integrated into my vocation. It’s impossible to know where God is going to lead you, but that’s been very beautiful to see.” 

Related article: VocationNetwork.org, “Science + Spirit = Brother Kyle: Profile of Brother Kyle Mena, F.S.C.”