SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 7 - N. 45 - 2001 - November - II
From: Koinonia, 2001, N. 3
Briefly, but with real fraternal joy, we wish to welcome Br. Michael Higgins, new Assistant General to the SFO on the part of the TOR.
Br. Michael Higgins was born in the United States of America in 1951 and is a member of the Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the United States.
In the last General Chapter of the TOR, Br. Michael was elected Vicar-General of his Order and was nominated, by his Minister General, Br. Ilija Zivkovic, to be also the Assistant General for the Secular Franciscan Order. For more than 15 years he worked with the SFO in America and has great experience and knowledge of the SFO.
With feelings of true fraternity we wish to thank Br. Zvonimir Brusac for the precious service he gave, for almost six years, as Assistant General to the SFO on behalf of the TOR. He returns to his Province in Croatia, leaving an example of great love for the SFO and towards the entire Franciscan Family.
In his Province, in Croatia, Br. Zvonimir will fulfil the duties of Vicar Provincial and Master of Clerics. We ask the blessing of the Lord on him and his Province.
The Presidency of the CIOFS organised a seminar for the SFO in Oradea in Romania, held from the 21st to the 30th May 2001. The speakers at the Seminar were Emanuela De Nunzio, Minister General, Wilhelmina Visser-Pelsma, Councillor to the Presidency, Margaret Mertens, International Councillor and the Assistants General Br. Valentin Redondo, OFMConv., Br. Ivan Matic, OFM, and Br. Ben Brevoort, OFMCap.
The aim of the Seminar was to provide an occasion for the various Fraternities present in Romania to meet, to be formed and thus to facilitate the creation of a national Fraternity. Some thirty secular Franciscans, from different regions of Romania and Moldova, of Greek Catholic and Romanian-Latin rites in the Romanian and Hungarian languages, participated in the Seminar.
It was the first time that representatives of the various Fraternities of the SFO of these countries had had the opportunity to be together. Because of this the times of recreation and tours were very important to show with facts that it is possible to live together in the different cultures and ways of celebrating our faith. The opening Mass was celebrated in the Greek-Catholic rite by the local Bishop. The other liturgical celebrations were in the Latin-Romanian rite using Romanian and Hungarian.
The participants were very happy with the opportunity to deepen the various aspects of the Secular Franciscan spirituality, initial and ongoing formation of secular Franciscans, the responsibilities of the Fraternity Councils, the history of the SFO and active presence in the Church and society.
At the end of the Seminar the participants expressed their gratitude for this unique occasion and their disposition to continue working together. After the Seminar, the Minister General, Emanuela De Nunzio and the two Assistants General, Brs. Ivan Matic and Ben Brevoort, met with the OFM Minister Provincial, while Wilhelmina Visser-Pelsma, Br. Valentin Redondo and Br. Ivan Matic visited some SFO Fraternities in Moldova and Bucharest. One of the first concrete results of the Seminar is the precise and clear intention of those responsible in the regions to work towards the constitution of a provisional national Council for the whole nation.
Santo Domingo. From the 17th to the 24th June, the V Latin-American Congress of the SFO/FYM was held in Santo Domingo, in the place where the evangelisation of the continent began. 16 Delegations of National Fraternities of the SFO and 4 of the FYM, coming from the various countries of Central America, South America and the Caribbean participated in representation of the 113,800 Secular Franciscans of the area. The Vice-President General, Encarnación del Pozo, the Councillor to the Presidency for Spanish speakers, Alicia Gallardo, and the Assistant General Br. Ben Brevoort, OFMCap, were also present.
The central theme of the Congress was "Francis and Clare: response to the Latin American person in the third millennium". In the light of this topic some sub-topics were dealt with: "The Church and Franciscan realities of Latin America"; "Spiritual Assistance to the SFO in the new millennium"; Children: the reality, rights and children in the ambient of the SFO and FYM"; "The FYM in the new millennium".
Various challenges for the SFO and FYM in Latin America were identified and some proposals were made. Among others were: to esteem the old brothers as a power for the Fraternity; to propose the Secular Franciscan vocation to the young, to couples, seminarists and diocesan priests; to appreciate natural, social and political resources of the continent; to live a Fraternity without frontiers; to improve the formation of the spiritual assistants and to work towards the spiritual assistance to the SFO being a priority for the First Order and TOR; to promote the formation of children’s groups of Franciscans; reinforce relationships between SFO and FYM; get the secular Franciscans to identify with their charism and to become incarnate in their reality. Mexico was chosen as the location for the next Congress.
The V Latin American Congress concluded with a Eucharistic celebration in the first and oldest Latin American cathedral with the presence of two thousand secular Franciscans from all over the Dominican Republic.