Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. I receive you all with joy and give to each one my hearty welcome: to the members of the Presidency of the International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order, both new and previous,, to all the participants in the Tenth General Chapter and, through you, to all the Secular Franciscans and members of Franciscan Youth present in the world.
In this General Chapter you have brought to a close the up-dating of your fundamental legislation. You now have in your hands the Rule, approved by my predecessor Paul VI, of happy memory, on the 24th June 1978; the Ritual, approved on the 9th March 1984; the General Constitutions definitively approved on the 8th of December 2000; and the International Statutes, approved in this Chapter. It is now necessary to look to the future and to set out: Duc in altum!

The Church expects from the Secular Franciscan Order, one and only, a great service in the cause of the Kingdom of God in the world of today. The Church desires that your Order should be a model of organic, structural and charismatic unity on all levels, so as to present itself to the world as a "community of love" (Regola OFS 26). The church expects from you, Secular Franciscans, a courageous and consistent testimony of Christian and Franciscan life, leaning towards the construction of a more fraternal and gospel world for the realisation of the Kingdom of God.

2. The reflection, carried out during this Chapter, on "The vital reciprocal communion in the Franciscan Family" pushes you to commit yourselves evermore in the promotion of meeting and understanding especially within your Order, then before other Franciscan brothers and sisters and finally, with maximum care, as St. Francis wished, in your relations with the hierarchical authorities of the Church.

Your renewed legislation gives you optimal instruments for carrying out and fully expressing the unity of your Order and its communion with the Franciscan Family within precise coordinates. In it there is, above all, provision for the service of animation and guidance of the Fraternities, "co-ordinated and connected according to the norm of the Rule and the Constitutions"; such service is indispensable for communion between the Fraternities, for the coordinated collaboration between them and for the unity of the Secular Franciscan Order (cf. General Constitutions SFO 29.1). Also the "spiritual assistance as a fundamental element of communion", to be carried out collegially on the regional, national and international levels is important (General Constitutions SFO 90.3). Of decisive importance is finally the collegial service of the altius moderamen, "entrusted by the Church to the Franciscan First Order and to the Third Order Regular", to which the Secular Fraternity has been attached for centuries (cf. General Constitutions SFO 85.2; 87.1).

I earnestly hope that the new Presidency of the International Council of the SFO (CIOFS) will continue the path undertaken by the preceding one towards the goal of a true and single body, in fidelity to the charism received from St. Francis and to the fundamental line of the renewed legislation of your Order.

3. In the meeting of more than twenty years ago, on the 27th September 1982, with the participants of the General Assembly of your International Council, I exhorted you to: "Study, love, live the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order, approved for you by my predecessor Paul VI. This is an authentic treasure in your hands, harmonised with the spirit of the II Vatican Council and corresponding to what the Church expects from you" (Teachings, V/3, 1982, page 613). I am pleased to be able to address analogous words to you today: study, love, live also your General Constitutions! These exhort you to accept the help that, in order to fulfil the will of the Father, is offered to you through the mediation of the Church by those who have been established in authority and by your Confreres.

You are called on to give your own contribution, inspired by the person and message of St. Francis of Assisi, in speeding up the advent of a civilisation in which the dignity of the human person, corresponsibility and love will be a living reality (Cfr. Gaudium et Spes 31 ss). You must deepen the true foundations of the world-wide Fraternity and create everywhere the spirit of welcome and the atmosphere of brotherliness. Commit yourselves firmly against all forms of exploitation, discrimination and marginalisation and against all attitudes of indifference towards others.

4. You Secular Franciscans, by vocation, live belonging to the Church and to society as inseparable realities. Therefore, you are asked, above all else, to bear personal witness before all in the environment in which you live: "in your family life; in your work; in your joys and sufferings; in your associations with all men and women, brothers and sisters of the same Father; in your presence and participation in the life of society; in your fraternal relationships with all creatures." (General Constitution SFO 12.1). Perhaps blood martyrdom will not be asked of you, you are certainly asked for the testimony of consistency and firmness in fulfilling the promises made at Baptism and at Confirmation, renewed and confirmed in your Profession in the Secular Franciscan Order. In virtue of this Profession, the Rule and General Constitution must represent for each one of you the reference point for everyday experience, on the basis of a specific vocation and a precise (cf Promulgation of the General Constitutions of the SFO). If you are truly spurred on by the Spirit to achieve the perfection of charity in your secular state, "it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity" (Novo Millennio Ineunte 31). It is necessary to commit oneself with conviction to the "high measure of ordinary Christian life" to which I invited all the faithful at the end of the Great Jubilee of 2000 (Ibid.).

5. I do not want to conclude this message without recommending you to consider your family as the primary environment in which to live the Christian commitment and the Franciscan vocation, giving within it space for prayer, to the Word of God and to Christian catechesis, and making every effort to respect all life, from conception and in all situations, until death. It is necessary to act in such a way that your families "show convincingly that it is possible to live marriage fully in keeping with God's plan and with the true good of the human person: of the spouses and especially of the children who are more fragile" (Novo Millennio Ineunte 47).

In this context, I exhort you to take up the Holy Rosary, which, "by age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer that brings the family together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God" (Rosarium Virginis Mariae 41). Do it with your gaze on the Virgin Mary, the humble servant of the Lord, disposed to his Word and to all his appeals, who was surrounded with inexpressible love and was designated Protector and Advocate of the Franciscan Family by Francis. Give witness to Her of your burning love, in imitation of her unconditional availability and in the effusion of a confident and conscious prayer (cfr SFO Rule 9).

With this wish, I heartily impart to you, Secular Franciscans and to you, members of Franciscan Youth, a special Apostolic Blessing.

The Vatican, 22nd November 2002

John Paul II