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Capitulum Generale 2009
DAILY NEWS BRIEFING
ENGLISH SPEAKING CONFERENCE O.F.M.
 May 29, 2009
"I don't think it is hard to hear the cry of a society which expects us and calls on us to be witnesses to Jesus Christ, provacative reminders of Jesus through a life of poverty which does not require explanations in order to be understood and appreciated; through a life of chastity which makes us warm, integrated, harmonious, available to others and cheerful; through a life of obedience which makes us free, slaves of no one or of anything, and which commits us to seek and to live the dream of God."

- General Minister José Rodríguez Carballo, ofm
Report to the General Chapter
IN THIS ISSUE
Looking to the future
A dream of a Franciscan life
Footnotes from Assisi
QUICK LINKS
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Looking to the future
 
DOMUS PACIS - Today, Friday, was the final day of presentation of the General Minister's Report to the General Chapter.  General Minister Jose Rodriguez Carballo, OFM, used this final presentation to highlight some proposed paths and proposals for the future.  These proposals will be studied and discussed further in the weeks of Chapter ahead. 
 
Friday began with the presentation of the summaries from the small group discussions on Thursday.  Several members of the ESC are secretaries of these small groups and the individual making these presentations.  Leslie Hoppe, OFM (Assumption BVM Province) represents English Group 1; Caoimhin O'Laoide, OFM (Irish Province) represents English Group 2; Marc LeGoanvec, OFM (St. Joseph, Montreal), represents the French-speaking Group; and Marko Puljic, OFM (Custody of the Holy Family) represents the Croatian-speaking Group.
 
Marc LeGoanvec, OFMMarko Puljic, OFM
MARC LeGOANVEC, OFM (ST. JOSEPH, MONTREAL)                 MARKO PULJIC, OFM (CUSTODY OF THE HOLY FAMILY)
 
As always, some highlights from the General Minister's Report:
  • "Each and every one of the Friars is a bearer of the future. We build the future of our fraternity today. This is our great responsibility: to live the present in fidelity so that the future may be full of passion. We are not asked for success, but for a commitment to fidelity at every moment of our life."
  • "No one can be excluded, or exclude himself, from the commitment to generate the future."
  • "In this world, which lives as if God did not exist, we are called on to be prophetic signs of the sovereignty of God, of a God who does not tolerate idols."
  • "I don't think it is hard to hear the cry of a society which expects us and calls on us to be witnesses to Jesus Christ, provacative reminders of Jesus through a life of poverty which does not require explanations in order to be understood and appreciated; through a life of chastity which makes us warm, integrated, harmonious, available to others and cheerful; through a life of obedience which makes us free, slaves of no one or of anything, and which commits us to seek and to live the dream of God."

General Minister's Report

  • "Everything in the life of Francis began with a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, with an experience of faith in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That same encounter and expeience of faith must be at the basis of our evangelical project of life."
  • "What must we do? To guard and develop the faith it is necessary, above all, to propose again a renewed interest in prayer."
  • "It is impossible to think of Franciscan life and mission whcih are not supported by and rest in the word of God. An Order like ours, which is defined as a contemplative fraternity of minors in mission, cannot but place the word of God at its center."
  • "It is not enough to share the same roof, table or timetable...if we wish to be called prophetic before our world, our fraternal life has to be an expression of and a place for an exchange of faith and for profound relationships."
  • "The world of today, and we ourselves, need fraternities which are, at the same time, spaces in which frankness, loyalty, transparency, fraternal help, understanding and joy are breathed in. We need fraternities with the warmth of home, where familiarity, ease, trust, communication, interior freedom, intimacy and joyful sharing reign. We need homelike fraternities which...orient us outwards in order to share the best we live within us with people. We need homelike fraternities in order to realize ourselves as people, believers, brothers. We really need homelike fraternities in order to be happy."
  • "I am personally convinced that one of the worst symptoms of vocational flu which can appear in the consecrated life, and, therefore, among us, is the loss of the sense of belonging."
  • "The futre of our life and mission is inter, above all inter-provinciality. Our future depends on inter-provincial collaboration."
  • "An important challenge for us in this context at the present time is that of constructing new forms of fraternity at the service of the poor, and not only materially, in order to share, on the basis of an intimate self-giving to the Lord, the joys and sadness of the more poor and of those who suffer."
  • "The new model necessarily passes through close collaboration with the laity on a shared mission, which implies: speaking with them more than about them...forming the laity in the Franciscan charism if we wish them to enter fully into the ecclesial mission of our Order...Close collaboration with the laity will lead, without any doubt, to a new understanding of our identity as Friars Minor."
  • "Neither the Gospel nor our form of life is identified with any culture, but they cannot exist without being enculturated."
  • "Enculturation has to be carried out in the light of the three great mysteries of salvation: the Nativity, which shows the path of the Incarnation and moves the evangelizer to share his life with the evanglized; Easter, which leads to purification through suffering; and Pentecost, which through the power of the Spirit, makes all understand the wonders of the Lord in their own language."

Chapter business

PROPOSALS:
  • "During the next six years, the Priorities - spirit of prayer and devotion, fraternal life in communion, minority, poverty and solidarity, evangelizing mission, and formation - should continue to be the values of reference in animating our life an dmission."
  • "Conferences should draw up a plan of animation/formation for guardians and those responsible for other fields of animation in the Entities."
  • "In the next three years, 2010-2012, all the Entities of the Order should enter into a process of reflection and discernment. This should be done based on the following questions: where are we going? where do we wish to go? where is the Spirit moving us to go, remembering our reality, the invitations of the Church, the most recent documents of the Order, and the signs of the times? choices to be made in the near future."
  • "At the end of 2012, all the Entities should send to the Secretary General the results of their reflection and concrete proposals for the immediate direction of the Order, which will be presented in the General Chapter of 2015 for approval."
  • "The General Definitory should commission a sociological study of the Order, one which takes account of the median age of the brothers, the numerical trends in the various Entities, and the situation of the globalized society in which we live, considering strategies to follow in the coming years in order to strengthen the presence of the Order where it is weakening, and to consolidate where it is growing."
  • "The General Definitory should appoint an International Commission that promotes the knowledge and practice of the contemplative dimension in a Franciscan key."
  • "To create at least one house (in every Entity) where the life of prayer is lived as a clear priority, in such a way that it can be a 'school of prayer' for the brothers and the laity."
  • "We need to be contemplatives if we wish our activity to be truly evangelical."
  • "Each Province or autonomous Custody should create at least one fraternity that responds to the needs of a new evangelization, characterized, among other things, by authentic and fraternal relationships, simplicity of life, itinerancy as an integral dimension of our charism, closeness to the people, and service to the local Church."
  • "Each Province or autonomous Custody should name a missionary team of brothers which, in collaboration with the laity, takes as their principal life commitment carrying the proclamation to those places where people have no close relationship to religion, the Gospel or with Jesus Christ."
  • "Each Province or autonomous Custody should have at least one brother in missionary projects of the Order."
  • "Each Entity should send to the General Secretariat for Evangelization, for support of the missionary Projects of the Order, 8% of the income received for missions."
  • "The General Definitory should carry out a serious evaluation of the entire process of formation, from Initial Formation to Ongoing Formation in its distinct stages."
  • "All Entities should develop a plan for Ongoing Formation to be sent to the Curia."
  • "On completing 25 years of solemn profession, all the brothers should interrupt their normal actvities and enage in a period of Ongoing Formation of six months' duration."
  • "Interprovincial and international houses of formation and studies should be promoted in the whole Order."
  • "The Conferences will make an evaluation of all the stages of Initial Formation, particularly the stage of temporary profession."
  • "The General Minister and his Definitory...should raise the awareness of the brothers concerning the necessity of financial transparency and solidarity, the option for a simple life, and a distributive economy or restitution."
  • "The General Definitory should revise the structure of the Office of Fund Raising."
  • "The General Definitory should revise the Office of the General Treasurer, assuring qualified personnel to carry out the technical-practical issues related to civil society on financial and fiscal matters."

Chapter Hall

A dream of a Franciscan life 
 
DOMUS PACIS - General Minister Jose Rodriuez Carballo, OFM, concluded his report to the General Chapter by inviting the brothers to dream.  Here are some of his dreams for the future of our fraternity:
  • "The worst thing that can happen to a person is to stop dreaming...I want to dream, and I want to think that all of us as brothers want to dream, because we want to live, we want to create a future. Therefore I invite you to dream with me."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that is more contemplative, in which we as brothers may move with passion, open to teh breath of the Spirit."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that lives constantly under the influence of the Spirit and is faithful to his inspirations."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that is prophetic, based on deep identification with Christ."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that is a prophecy of fraternity for all and, in the midst of a world torn by rivalries and violence of every kind, offers spaces for encounter, for welcome, for gratuity and festive celebration, with serene and joyful sharing."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that in which poverty does not generate so many arguments, but is a reality of the heart that gives rise to joy; in which obedience is not lived as a struggle and resignation but as a passionate search for dialogue and discernment of the will of God; in which chastity and celibacy are lived with a heart open to all, generously, and thus joyful."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that knows how to strip itself of all that impedes it from walking in the direction indicated by Francis 800 years ago. I dream of a Franciscan life that is able to create new wineskins for new wine, that can give new responses to new challenges, that opts for new structures capable of transmitting life, and life in abundance."
  • "I dream of a Franciscan life that moves forward, with little baggage, towards the future, following the Lord of hstory, with the fire of that passion that burns inside us, knowing that today He can do great things with the humble of heart, as He did 800 years ago with Francis and Clare of Assisi."
  • "The prophet proclaimed that the days are coming when young men will prophesy and old men will dream dreams. Have those days already arrived?" 

Santa Maria degli Angeli

 
Footnotes from Assisi
 
Michael Perry, OFM
DOMUS PACIS - Michael Perry, OFM, Provincial Minister of the Sacred Heart Province (St.Louis, MO0, sent the following message to the friars of his Province:
 
Dear Brothers:
 
Greetings and peace from the assembly room of Domus Pacis, the guest house located next to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, also knows as Portiuncula. It is in this basilica of the original Portiuncula where Francis received his brothers into a life of penance. We are some 170 friars hailing from the four corners of the globe who have come to celebrate our gospel life, discern future leadership for the Order in the coming six years and respond to the invitation of the Spirit of God as we engage with a world hungering for meaning, community, healing and reconciliation and hope. These are the goals of this General Chapter of 2009, which will end on June 20, 2009.

The morning session of chapter opened with a solemn procession through the massive center doors of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. Minister General Brother José Rodríguez Carballo OFM led the procession with the Book of the Gospels, announcing the central place the Gospels are to play in the life of the Friars Minor. Upon arrival at the Portiuncula chapel, each of us reverenced the Book of the Gospels with a kiss and then processed through the doors of the tiny Portiuncula chapel and out to the wider body of the basilica. A eucharistic celebration followed the opening ritual. Later in the morning, we were welcomed to Assisi by the local ordinary and by the mayor (a letter was read in his absence). In the afternoon, we turned to the first business of the chapter: electing moderators and selecting leaders and secretaries for each of the language groups, which number approximately seven.

One of the greatest experiences of this General Chapter is the meeting of friars from five of the world's continents. According to the report of our brother José Carballo, there are some 146 entities of the Order (provinces, custodies, foundations and federations) with approximately 15,000 friars. As you might imagine, the colors of the different habits represent the different languages, cultures and countries present here. At any given moment, I find myself listening to friars speaking Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish, Hungarian, Slovenia, Croatian and other languages. I have been amused on more than one occasion when I find myself speaking in English, the other friar responding in Spanish or Italian or French or vice verse. While it is important to communicate, it also is amusing to see how difficult it is at times to find a common language. I have the sense this will color many of my exchanges with friars. The secret is to keep talking and keep laughing!

Immediately prior to the chapter the provincials and custodi representing the different entities of the English Speaking Conference met for two days to discuss matters of common concern, share experiences and challenges and prepare for the General Chapter. As we discussed the needs of the Order and the qualities of leadership, I was reminded of the preparations that took place at the level of our Province of Sacred Heart at the fall and spring regional meetings preceding the 2008 chapter. I also remember the greatest challenge placed before us, that of finding new ways to live more radically the gospel life to which all of us are called. Let us remind one another that our life is one of "setting out into the deep," never being satisfied with where we currently find ourselves. And as will be the case with the General Chapter, so was it true of our 2008 provincial chapter - that we must be willing to sacrifice, to let go, to embrace a simpler lifestyle and to embrace one another in trust and forgiveness as we answer God's call. This is the great invitation of this General Chapter of 2009: "To evaluate our life and mission, and to move ourselves out toward the future, to walk in authenticity and with a view to the future ... to look toward the past with gratitude (our 150 years of life as a province) and embrace the future with hope ("set out into the deep"), living this present with passion!" (Report of the Minister General to the General Chapter of 2009, paragraph 8).

I will write to you at various moments during the chapter in order to share some reflections on process and content. I invite each of you to join with me as together we seek to embrace our way of life, that of the Gospel, in authenticity and with a view to the future. May the Spirit of God renew the face of the Order, the Church and the world. And may each of us open ourselves anew to the promptings of the Spirit in a spirit of fraternal service and love. We have only and always to remind ourselves, one another, and all whom we meet that God directs our lives, God alone! I call each of you to join those of us gathered here in the General Chapter of 2009 in prayer and in the joy that comes from knowing the One who calls us by name and who has called us into this Gospel life with all of our failings and our sacred longings. And I promise that not only will I carry you in prayer each day but I also will think of you as I consume wonderful Italian pasta, cheeses, and wines!

My fraternal love and prayers to each of you,

Mike 
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ESC LogoThis DAILY NEWS BRIEF is produced by and for the friars of the English Speaking Conference of the Order of Friars Minor.  Executive Secretary: Thomas Washburn, OFM.