SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 4 - N. 9 - 1998 - February - IV
From: Koinonia, 1998, N. 1
Carl Schafer OFM
Part II
International Fraternity
International government has been emphasized. The present Presidency of the International Council, elected in 1996, includes three men and six women from eight different countries, and four General Assistants from three more different countries.
The Minister General, Emanuela De Nunzio, from Italy, is into her second term. The Vice Minister General, Encarnación Del Pozo, is from Spain. The Presidency Councillors are: Jean Pierre Rossi (French Area) from France; Emerenziana Rossato (Italian Area) from Italy; Marianne Powell (English Area) from Denmark; Rosalvo Mota (Portuguese Area) from Brazil; Alicia Gallardo (Spanish Area) from Chile; Wilhelmina Visser-Pelsma (German Area) from the Netherlands; Pedro Nuno da Silva Coelho (Franciscan Youth) from Portugal.
Until 1998, the four General Assistants were: Fr Ben Brevoort OFMCap, President of the Conference of General Assistants; Fr Zvonimir Brusac TOR, Secretary; Fr Valentín Redondo OFMConv; Fr Carl Schafer OFM. We come from Indonesia, Croatia, Spain and Australia, respectively.
Fr Ben was reconfirmed in November 1996 and is into his second six-year term. Fr Zvonimir was appointed in September 1995. Fr Valentín took up his appointment in October 1996. In January 1998, I will be replaced as General Assistant, having held that office since July 1985, for twelve years, which is the maximum permitted by the Statutes for Assistance, Art.11. Fr Nils Thompson OFM, from U.S.A., is my successor.
The SFO Minister General happens to be Italian and living in Rome, and the four General Assistants reside in Rome. But the Presidency makes a conscious effort to avoid central government and government from Rome. Not all the National Councils would agree that the government is in fact decentralized or free of excessive Roman influence. Some are allergic to anything that comes out of Rome.
Autonomy
On paper (in the Rule and General Constitutions), the SFO is autonomous. But it will not be autonomous in fact until it is united as a single Order in every Regional and National Fraternity, until the Councils at the various levels are capable of governing the Fraternities, and until it is self-sufficient financially.
However, autonomous government of the Fraternities on the part of elected secular Ministers and Councillors has made considerable progress.
Certainly, restructuring and autonomy have borne fruit for the vitality of secular Franciscan life, as is generally attested in the United States of America, where the restructuring into Regional Fraternities was recently completed.
Finances
Financial autonomy has a long way to go, as I said five years ago. The idea that everything must come cost-free is still strong, not only in those countries where foreign missionaries provided everything free of charge, but also in the rest of the world where the friars often provided for the slight financial requirements of the local Fraternities.
Few Secular Franciscans, even in the "rich" countries, such as Germany and the United States, are themselves rich. The majority belongs to the middle bracket, and many are economically poor. St Francis did not attract many rich people to follow him, and so it is today. In fact, he attracted many marginal people. There would be something seriously out of order if the SFO attracted mainly rich people and gave a slight welcome to poor and unimportant people.
I believe that the Minister General and Presidency have stated a sound principle: that even the poorest member can contribute something to the financial support of the Fraternity. If every single one of the (half-million?) members contributed a minimal something, the SFO would be much better off financially than it is at present.
The response of the National Councils to the International Secretariat's appeal to contribute to the support of the Order at the general level has improved over the past ten years, but it is still not general and is far from adequate. In 1986, only fourteen contributed. In 1996, thirty-two out of eighty-eight national entities contributed, but not all these contributors were National Councils. There are forty-nine National Councils. This would seem to indicate that many National Councils do not receive financial support from their own base.
The response of a number of National Councils to the Presidency's appeal for funds for the promotion of the SFO in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia has been very generous. The same National Councils already send their annual contribution to the International Secretariat.
Statistics
The most recent statistics of the Secular Franciscan Order were prepared before the General Chapter in 1996. Briefly, they are as follows:
According to continents:
Europe: 195,839; Latin America: 170,786; North America: 36,353; Asia: 24,451; Africa: 13,908; Oceania: 1,500. Total: 442,837.
According to language areas:
Spanish: 165,856; Italian: 126,098; English: 72,616; German: 34,586; Portuguese: 24,813; French: 18,868 (includes French-speaking Canada). Total: 442,837.
General Constitutions
Implanting the General Constitutions has depended on having them translated into many languages besides the official ones (English, French, Italian, Spanish). The work of translation is still going on, seven years after their promulgation in 1990. Because many Secular Franciscans have not yet received a text that they can understand, the Presidency asked for a prorogation of the definitive approval of the General Constitutions, to give the Order time to experience them.
The Constitutions have been put to use particularly in national elective Chapters, where the Minister General or her delegate, together with the General Assistant, has insisted on following the Constitutions. It would seem that this has been the first time that many of the National Councils have had to take the General Constitutions seriously. If one can make a general judgment from these encounters, it would seem that the General Constitutions are not well known.
They were long awaited, since 1978, and have been most welcome almost universally. The National Council of France has submitted a re-organized text for consideration when the General Constitutions are to be definitively approved at the General Chapter in 1999. At that Chapter, the work on the final draft of the General Constitutions will be completed for definitive approval by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Nils Francis Thompson OFM was born in 1935, in Galveston, Texas, U.S.A. He is a member of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Albuquerque, New Mexico. His father was from Norway (Nils Torkelson Seland), and his mother's family, Myers, from Labasheeda, Co. Clare, Ireland. Since his ordination in 1963, Fr Nils has been involved in the preaching ministry and in the parochial ministry, and has served a number of Secular Franciscan Fraternities as spiritual Assistant. He has been Provincial Spiritual Assistant since 1988, and was active in forming the new SFO Regional Fraternity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in New Mexico and West Texas, of which he was Regional Spiritual Assistant. Fr Nils was appointed General Assistant on 1 October, 1997. He arrived in Rome on 31 December and assumed full responsibility on 1 January, 1998.