SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 8 - N. 8 - 2002 - February - IV
From: Letter to the Assistants, 2001, N. 3
The Holy Father John Paul II has appointed, the General Minister of the SFO, Emanuela De Nunzio, a Consultor of the Pontifical Council for the Laity for the coming five years. Among the 30 Consultors nine are bishops (of whom five Secretaries of dicasteries of the Roman Curia, who are Consultors by right of the Council), eight priests and thirteen lay faithful. Fifteen Consultors were reconfirmed in their service. This appointment, after the previous ones of Manuela Mattioli and Emerenziana Rossato, shows the esteem and the importance given by the Pope to the Secular Franciscan Order in the life of the Church.
The Pontifical Council for the Laity assists the Pope in all matters concerning the contribution the lay faithful make to the life and mission of the Church, whether as individuals or through the various forms of association that have arisen and constantly arise within the Church. Its Members and Consultors are called to collaborate directly with the Pope in his pastoral mission to serve all lay faithful. This asks for loyalty and faithful adherence, in word and in deed, to the Holy Father. It means, among others, to take part in his missionary concern that the grace of Christ shows forth in all baptized and that the lay faithful give witness to Christ in all walks of life. Each of the Members and of the Consultors is therefore called to contribute in a particular and effective way so that the lay faithful answer «the call of Christ the Lord to work in his vineyard, to take an active, conscientious and responsible part in the mission of the Church in this great and dramatic moment in history» (Christifideles laici, 3). In these efforts the apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte indicates which way the Church should take at the beginning of the third millennium.
We thank the Holy Father for the esteem shown to the SFO and we wish Emanuela De Nunzio success in her work for the good of the whole Church.
The positive aspects of the experience are set against the difficulties that are born of the same life of assistance to the Secular Franciscan Order. The difficulties are not insuperable obstacles but a way along which we travel together and are motives for reflection that help to have a better assistance for the SFO and a greater knowledge of a Franciscan Order that, like the First Order and TOR, express the same charism of Francis, but in a secular way.
The passage from one form of accompaniment to the secular Franciscans, that of "Director" to that of "Assistant" [1 is always difficult – spiritual assistance, the guidance of the Good Shepherd, not direction -, that of "order" and that of "service", that of the last word being had by the "father" – even though there is but one Father and He is in heaven -, and that of being a member who collaborates with the Council and its Minister and does not substitute [2 .
To this is added the excessive permanence of some religious in assistance to the SFO, especially on the local and regional levels. A consequence of this is that, using the new terminology, these Assistants try to carry on the assistance as if it was still direction. This obstructs the secular Franciscans in their effort not to be a devotional group. They do not get to have collaboration with the assistant or pastor in order to live their "form of evangelical life" [3 , with all its commitment to mission [4 .
Excessive time in office of an Assistant carries with it a negative burden of tiredness, repetition and lack of creativity, among others, that frequently damage seriously the life of the SFO Fraternity.
At times the same thing happens in "collegiality" when, for one reason or another, the established rotation is not carried out or there is no teamwork.
There are two very important things in assistance: it is a service and, on the regional, national and international level, it is a collegial service.
The most important thing in an Assistant is suitability. A suitable person is capable and open: capable of collaboration and open to the Spirit, to a return to the sources of the charism. Assistance is also an apostolate. The assistance will be suitable if the Assistant is open to formation, to know the SFO and to collaborate with it.
Those ultimately responsible for assistance have been and continues to be the Major Superiors – Ministers and Custos -, which also means that the Friar Ministers must be available for dialogue with the Council and Minister of the SFO about the naming of the assistants and to know the progress of the assistance in the Fraternities of the SFO on any level whatsoever that may pertain to him as a Major Superior [5 .
The Constitutions approved have introduced some interesting notes in respect to assistance and, concretely, they offer a wide range of possible candidates for assistance, always taking into account that this broadness of vision should never be to the detriment of suitability and good formation of the Assistant on any level whatsoever [6 .
One word within the difficulties found in the assistance to the SFO is motivated by the poor availability of religious. In general our religious brothers are more available for assistance to the present-day Church movements. They say they have more creativity, are better formed, made up of younger people and, also, in my opinion, the priest, in these Church groups in general, the assistant is a religious priest and has a greater part to play. Perhaps there remains some of the old direction given to Tertiaries.
The SFO is a secular movement just like the present day ones. It has not been any the less creative than the modern movements, some of which have their roots in the SFO – Catholic Action, Focolarini... When I think of it even more, I would say the SFO has been more creative. It is only necessary to know its history, its present, long history and its social and Church action, that at times are still associated with our convents and thus eclipse the life of the SFO.
It is a Franciscan Order, with the same charism as we have, only expressed in its secular way, which ratifies the great wealth of the charism that the Spirit gave to Francis of Assisi. The frontiers of the Franciscan mission, in a great meshing of understanding and collaboration – corresponsibility and communion – could be much wider and widespread. Where the religious brother does not arrive – priest or non-priest – and with difficulty he will get to many places such as the family, politics, mass media of communications (the so called new areopaghi), the secular Franciscan brother does arrive. Collaboration could be interesting even in the very promotion of vocations, in which the Franciscan charism has so many ways of being lived, as both secular and religious.
Called by the Church to the assistance of the secular Franciscans, we will be capable of offering a suitable and capable assistance if we open up ways of formation to get to know the SFO, to know them in order to love them, to love them in order to serve them. Thus there will be much more communion born, as the General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order remind us, "To be a witness to the spirituality and fraternal affection of the religious towards the secular Franciscans and a link of communion between their Order and the SFO, the spiritual Assistant should be a Franciscan religious belonging to the First Order or the TOR" [7 .
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