C I O F S LIST

Project "Franciscan Children"

I. Fundamentals

II. General Objective

III. Specific Objectives

IV. Organization

V. Method

VI. Contents

EUFRA Meeting of SFO leaders 1997

I. Fundamentals

The ideas and contents of this Project are intended to be a kind of collaboration in training Franciscan youngsters so that their spirituality may grow through common practical experience.

This way of experimenting the Franciscan world appreciating its exceptional beauty will be of help in educating the children because they will discover their spirituality (way, guide and vocation) and realize it perceptibly.

In this way we intend to bring children to involving experiences by touching, seeing, tasting, listening and smelling the things of the world around them which shall stimulate them to be actors of their creative and personal growth.
And it shall be the responsibility of parents and guides choosing the opportunities most favorable for the comprehension and valorization of the Franciscan ideal.

II. General Objective

To educate the children to open to community, to the Church and to love for the Franciscan way of life.

III. Specific Objectives

1. Encourage group work

2. Train leaders for work with children

3. Encourage interaction between children from 8 to 14 years of age

4. Promote the spiritual growth of our children through developing of contents showing the life of St. Francis.

IV. Organization

The children shall elect their leaders, who shall be:
a ­ President
b ­ Secretary
c - Treasurer
d - Responsible for sports activities
e - Responsible for cultural activities

V. Method

1. Find members of YOUFRA or Fraternities SFO who shall have to:
a - take part in study days regarding the objectives and methods of the Project "Children with Francis"
b - meet at least once a month for programming the Project
c - guide the groups of children

2. Invite children of the catechism groups, relatives of YOUFRA and SFO members to participate in the Project "Children with Francis" forming operative groups.

3. There could exist two kinds of groups made up of children from 8 to 10 and from 11 to 14.

4. The operative groups should not count more than 20 children.

VI. Contents

To bring the child to:

1. know himself and accept the other through the various recreative, sport and cultural activities

2. learn to love and respect ones own family, the country and the school

3. recognize The Lord as Father, Jesus as Brother and Mary as Mother

4. learn to pray in a personal way and in the community

5. learn about the life of St. Francis in the various stages

6. learn about the life of St. Francis in its human and spiritual dimension.

The joyfully awaited EUFRA Meeting of the SFO Leaders was held from April 1-5, 1997, at Nasice (Croatia), at about 200 km from Zagreb.

We were warmly greeted and comfortably put up at Nasice. Juray Gasparovic, National Vice-Minister, organized the program, prayer in the Franciscan Church and visits to places of artistic interest and natural beauty.

SFO delegates and leaders from 6 European countries participated in the Meeting: 2 General Assistants, Fr. Carl Schäfer, OFM, and Fr. Zvonimir Brusac, TOR, together with a few National Assistants who, in the study groups, in moments of get together and exchange showed to be real brothers desiring to be bearers of peace and unity.

Tibor Kauser, International Councillor of Hungary, presented the theme "Jesus Christ and St. Francis" based on the theme proposed by the Holy Father in preparation of the Jubilee.

Some of the questions that emerged during the discussions may be of interest also to our fraternities:
- Are we able to present Christ to the world as Francis did?
- Do our fraternities bring light to the world? Are they a visible sign of Christ?
- Do we recognize in our fraternities who is the pastor? Do we follow him or does he have to run after us?
- What can we do concretely so that our fraternity commits itself for the "small ones" and finds out who is to be considered "small" in our environment?

At the end it has been emphasized that this Meeting is reserved exclusively to national delegates and responsibles. Therefore all European National Councils must be stimulated to send delegates to the next Meeting to be held from April 15-19, 1998, probably in the Netherlands.

It was suggested that the hosting country prepare a presentation in respect of the situation of the local Church, the political, religious and ecumenical situation, the presence of the three branches of the Franciscan Order and any other helpful information about realities which characterize the country. The main purpose, in fact, of these European Meetings is to get to know ones neighbor in order to reach more easily a spiritual, Franciscan, European unity.