Rome, September 28, 2006

 

Circ. 45/02-08

To the SFO National Ministers
To the SFO International Councilors
To the SFO National Formators

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May the Lord give you his Peace!

This letter is a follow-up to the circular letter of 31/02-08 (October 15th, 2005).

We have the pleasure of writing to report to you the success of the first international formation course. Twenty-five participants from nineteen countries took part. We spent more than a week together studying, praying and exchanging ideas, and experiencing joyful fraternity life.

The evaluation of the participants strengthened our decision to offer the course to the formators of the Spanish and French linguistic areas. The course will be held from March 10th to March 18th, 2007 in Rome at the Curia Generale delle Suore "Francescane Angeline", via di Villa Troili, 26.

We have been able to bring together a faculty of outstanding Franciscans of spiritual and doctrinal experience, lay and religious, men and women.

The participation fee should be around € 700,00. This will include full board accommodation, a one day pilgrimage to Assisi as well as the contribution for the lecturers and the simultaneous translation service. The cost of travel is obviously not included.

The Presidency strongly urges the formators from all the National Fraternities (constituted and emerging) to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in this course.

This initiative (a specific and pressing demand of the General Chapter) is very important for the future of our Order.

For this reason we kindly ask all the National Fraternities to inform us by November 30th if they are willing to participate in this course in the Spanish and French languages.

National Fraternities should designate one (or more) of their formators who will, after the course, share the benefits within their own countries.

For those Fraternities that do not have sufficient resources to pay for the course, we hopefully expect some financial help. Thanks to the generosity of some National Fraternities, already three formators from poorer countries can participate. We encourage other National Fraternities to take this initiative. Even if they do not send anyone for this particular course, we ask them to offer at least some financial help. This will be a wonderful sign of vital fraternity.

As another option, we invite those countries speaking the same language to consider the possibility of sending one formator in the name of them all, thereby sharing the expenses and the benefits of the course.

Thank you for your participation in this initiative. We encourage you to pray for this course.
 

Fraternally,

  

Benedetto Lino