Circular Letter on the Application of the General Constitutions

1. Application and compliance with the Constitutions

2. Translations of the General Constitutions

3. Major amendments

Amendments in the General Constitutions

June 21, 2001

Circ. 24/96-02

To National Councils SFO
International Councillors SFO

Dear brothers and sisters,
Peace and all Good!

The CIOFS Presidency, in its meeting in Madrid from April 20 to 27, 2001 - after the promulgation of the General Constitutions on February 6, 2001 and their entering into force one month later, on March 6 - decided to provide details on :
1. Application of the General Constitutions
2. Translations
3. Amendments to be kept in mind.

1. Application and compliance with the Constitutions

The amendments introduced in the General Constitutions, approved during the Madrid Chapter in October 1999, were the result of long-term reflections, in which you all participated with great sense of responsibility and which terminated, after careful examination and the respective deliberations, with the approval by the General Chapter.

In view of the important decisions made in the General Chapter, the CIOFS Presidency immediately sent the Acta of the Chapter containing the votes cast for the amended articles and the text of the approved Constitutions to all National Councils and International Councillors. The Constitutions were handed over to the Conference of the General Ministers of the First Order and TOR for submission to the Holy See.

Consequently, the revised dispositions of the Constitutions should be sufficiently known to all and therefore be complied with and applied immediately.

2. Translations of the General Constitutions

In the above-mentioned meeting the Presidency approved the translations of the Constitutions in the other official CIOFS languages. Apart from the "editio tipica" in Italian, they are already available in French, English and Spanish, and may be found on the CIOFS site http://www.ciofs.org/doc/tsa1enos.htm. They will also be mailed to you with the CIOFS seal.

The National Councils in countries where one of the official CIOFS languages is spoken, may make linguistic changes in order to adapt the text to the linguistic peculiarities of their country, and present these to the Presidency for approval.

Besides the official languages, the General Constitutions are already approved and available in Portuguese.

For all the other languages, the National Councils are requested to provide for the translations as soon as possible using the text in anyone of the official languages. These translations must be sent to the CIOFS Presidency for approval, accompanied by a declaration of conformity by a Major Superior of the First Order or TOR (or the Conference of Major Superiors, when possible) who has checked or has arranged for this to be done, that the translation is in conformity with the texts already approved.

As regards translations into Croatian, Indonesian, Dutch and German, conformity will be checked directly by CIOFS Presidency members.

3. Major amendments

Since the Constitutions came into force and must be complied with as of March 6, 2001, National Councils must urgently advise the Regional and/or local Councils of the major items amended so that they can be adequately complied with. It may be of help to you to read the enclosure on these issues.

All other amendments may be discovered, evaluated and considered by you after careful reading, individually and in Fraternity, so that they may become "spirit and life" as stated in the letter of promulgation. The Constitutions are not only a compendium of regulations; they are, above all, an important and dynamic aid for the development of fraternal life and of the Fraternity, a formative aid to enable us to further exploreour identity, and follow the Rule, the fundamental inspiring document of our vocation, the document on which we must plan and build-up our secular, Franciscan, evangelic being.

With fraternal wishes for the work you are about to accomplish, in communion of prayer, I am yours affectionately,

Emanuela De Nunzio
General Minister SFO

No substantial changes were made to Chapters I and II of the General Constitutions. The major changes were made in Chapter III, which deals with the practical aspects of the life of the Fraternities at different levels. Some of the news are summarized here below :

The amended Constitutions

emphasize:

• the specific vocation in the Secular Franciscan Order(art.2.1) :
  "......those who are perpetually committed to another religious family or institute of consecrated life cannot belong to the SFO".
  This means that after the new General Constitutions came into force, those who belong to an Institute of consecrated life or to another Secular Institute cannot any more belong to the SFO too. This aspect is not retroactive and therefore does not apply to those who before that date belonged to the SFO and another Institute of consecrated life or Secular Institute. But, from now on, those who are bound to one of these Institutes or to another religious Family cannot choose to belong to the SFO too and, viceversa, those who already belong to the SFO cannot continue being Secular Franciscans if they choose to belong to another Institute of consecrated life or Secular Institute.
  This is a requirement deriving from the consciousness of one’s identity and specific vocation as well as the sense of belonging to the SFO;
  
  
• the need for a significant presence in the Church and in society(art. 28.2).
  The sense of the mission to which we are called ; the conviction of being requested to "go ahead" (Duc in altum), as we are encouraged by the Holy Father in the Apostolic Letter "Novo millennio ineunte", in order to spread the word of the Gospel of hope, be its witnesses and servants in the world with the support of our Fraternity based on our ardour of spiritual and apostolic life in our secular condition;
  
  
• the need to potentiate and give attention to formation and to use an appropriate terminology :
  -- by recommending temporary profession (art. 42.2) in order to extend initial formation, with a view to mature and consolidate the vocation before making the important choice of life related to perpetual Profession or the Promise of evangelic life ;
  -- by prescribing formation for the temporary professed and newly professed (art. 44.2) so that intense formation may be completed and the new brothers may feel the need for continuous and permanent formation which will allow to deepen their Christian, Franciscan and secular vocation and project us all in a vitally evangelic future;
  -- by insisting on the need for permanent formation (art. 44.3), giving orientation on methods and contents of a formation which is ongoing for a life-time;
  -- by involving the whole Council (art. 37.2 and 52.3) in the responsibility and in formative activities;
  -- by using terms suitable to our secular condition (art. 38, 39, 41, 42): time of initiation / aspirant instead of postulancy / postulant; initial formation / candidate istead of novitiate / novice;
  
  
• unity of the Order (art. 29.1);