For the last six years, the Order has had nine General Definitors selected from the various geographic areas of the Order. On Monday, the Chapter met as a whole, and in language groups to discuss various proposals about the make up of the General Definitory - proposals that ranged from having one Definitor for each Conference; to having 10 Definitors; to reducing the Definitorium to seven.

 

Today, in a session presented by juridical expert Br. Aidan McGrath, OFM, Chapter delegates accepted a proposal to keep things the way they currently are for the election of the next Definitorium (which will take place on Saturday, June 6), and to study the issue in depth during the next six years.

 

 

 

The text of the approved proposal read, "In the current General Chapter the election of the General Definitors will be carried out according to the norms decided in the 2003 General Chapter: 'nine General Definitors from the geographic areas according to the current methods, adding one extra for Latin America.'"

 

The approved proposal to study the issue further was suggested by one of the two English speaking language groups.  That proposal read, "The 2009 General Chapter gives a mandate to the General Definitory to make an indepth study of all the issues related to the government of the Order by means of an International Commission, which will engage with the Entities and Conferences and which will take into consideration all of the observations offered during the General Chapter of 2009. This Commission should complete its work by 1 January 2012."

 

Delegates also made another proposal that will be taken up later in the week if it receives enough support from delegates to come to the floor.