SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 9 - N. 8 - 2003 - February - III
From: CIOFS Secretariat
A demographic study was requested by the General Chapter in Madrid. The Presidency of CIOFS commissioned the International Councilor for Canada, Doug Clorey, to prepare a questionnaire for this purpose. The task was embraced by Doug Clorey with great zeal and competence and resulted in a valuable, articulate and comprehensive questionnaire - especially given the absence of some requested data in cultural areas which may otherwise be difficult to understand and even more to compile.
The Presidency, appreciating the need for scientific rigor for the proposed study, tried to trim and simplify the process with the hope that the responses would be more accurate. The questionnaires were sent to the national fraternities attached to the circular letter no. 26/96-02 dated February 18, 2002, with a request to have them returned by April 30, 2002.
No national fraternity was able to meet the deadline and by September 30th only 26 of 57 fraternities had returned the questionnaires. Some of these had written in the margins next to some of the questions: "data not available."
We would like to present to you some reflections based on the responses which were received. At the same time, we would like to express our great hope that this work will continue during the next six years in order to provide a more complete picture of the reality of the SFO in the world and to allow for a greater orientation of the service of animation and guidance of national and international responsibilities.
The great majority of the members of the SFO fall with the range of 35 and 65 years of age. The is not something surprising because the SFO vocation is an option for those in the adult years - those who have reached a point of psychological, affective and professional stability. For the most part the percentage of the members of national fraternities who are younger than 35 varies from 5 to 10%.
There are, however, some points which merit particular attention and an attentive analysis of the reasons behind their reality:
There are national fraternities where the secular Franciscan youth reach a high percentage of the overall membership: Colombia 25%, Portugal 15%, Peru 11%.
What is the reason why these countries attract the young to the SFO?
On the other hand, there are some national fraternities where there are very few young professed: Flanders .64%, Malta 1%, Korea and Viet Nam 2%, Poland and Hungary 3%.
What has to be done in order to overcome the reluctance of the youth in these countries to enter the SFO?
The data regarding the makeup of the membership of the SFO between men and women confirms that there is a great prevalence of the feminine component of the Order which represents close to 80% of the total everywhere.
The masculine presence is more elevated in few countries: El Salvador and Oceania about 35%; Viet Nam, Tanzania, France and Portugal 40%. One exception in the opposite direction is Lithuania where the men represent only about 6.14% of the total.
It is difficult to derive some direction from this data because the countries which are able to boast of a more equal representation of the their members between male and female are present in various continents and in the most diverse cultural contexts.
The fact remains that the form of fraternal life needs to be individualized in a way which would be more compatible to men of working age and initiatives to attract and interest them need to be developed.
The percentage of secular Franciscans who live their lives as couples falls within 50 and 60%. It is logical that the percentage of widows and widowers is more elevated where the median age of the members is higher. Flemish Belgium is a typical case where 83% of the secular Franciscans are older than 65 and the percentage of widows and widowers is over 55%.
Celibates and single, which compose around 15% for the Order, reaches a higher percentage in various countries in Latin America: Argentina 35%, Colombia 30%, Chile 28%, Brazil 27%, Costa Rica 25%, etc... This phenomenon makes one think that the fraternity life in these areas is established in such a way as to be more helpful in situations for single people than for those who have duties of a family nature. Perhaps greater attention should be given to the needs of these people as a way to apply article 34 of the General Constitutions.
The responses to the fifth question reveal that the membership of the SFO is concentrated primarily in urban centers. There are some exceptions with a greater rural percentage: El Salvador 85%, Tanzania 80%, Austria and Peru 60%, Czech Republic 50%.
The prevalent level of education is secondary school (high school), but it is lower in areas where the majority of secular Franciscans live in rural areas - as was pointed out in the previous question:
El Salvador: total percentage totally or partially illiterate 65%, elementary school 15%
Tanzania: total percentage totally or partially illiterate 18%, elementary school 70%
Austria: elementary school 60%
Peru: total percentage totally or partially illiterate 8%, elementary school 15%
Czech Republic: elementary school 50%
These phenomena pose specific and interesting problems to the countries regarding initial and ongoing formation programs as they try to present a "program of life" to their members in an accessible form which values their spiritual potential and experience.
On the other hand are the formation needs of secular Franciscans who have a higher than medium education level. The number of those who have a university degree varies from 10 to 20% (the highest percentage is in Costa Rica with 36%, Peru with 24%, and in Brazil and the Czech Republic). For these members also it would be necessary to study ways in which formation programs suited to their experience can be instituted. Otherwise the Order runs the risk that these people will move towards other associations thus depriving the Secular Franciscan Order of the possibility of being present with its proper charism in the worlds of education, medicine, other professional fields, or in political activity. This would be a terrible "poverty!" One remedy for this risk might be that of personal fraternities, something that in fact has been acknowledged in the report of the presidency of the chapter.
The economic level of secular Franciscans is that of the median of the country in which they live. If the identification with situations of poverty is considered, the economic level decreases where the level of instruction for the members of the SFO is lower. Taking again the examples cited in part 5 (Rural and City Areas), we find the percentage of poor in the following countries:
El Salvador: 85%
Tanzania: 97%
Austria: 24%
Peru: 50%
There are also countries in which poverty is not directly connected to the rural areas and to a lower cultural level but rather to socio-political conditions. The poor are:
79% in Bolivia
55% in Colombia
60% in Ecuador
60% in Viet Nam
These situations have to be considered in the determination of the proportion of contributions referred to in article 25 of the Rule, but only regarding the proportion: the duty of every brother and sister to offer a contribution commensurate with their own situation remains valid. We should not forget the poor offering of the widow!
The last inquiry of the questionnaire aimed at surfacing the situation of those countries which have a multiplicity of languages commonly used by their population. However, the responses of many countries which have a linguistic pluralism (Canada, Guatemala, India, Zambia, etc.) are missing. Some of the significant responses include the following:
Bolivia: 20% of secular Franciscans speak the indigenous language
Peru: 15% of secular Franciscans speak Quechua
Tanzania: 10% of secular Franciscans speak the indigenous language
Spain: 70% speak Castilian (Spanish), 30% Catalan or Gallego, Basque, etc...
Other aspects that we wanted to learn with this question regards the language that each national fraternity uses for their international reports. Naturally, the responses are relevant in the organization and functioning of the International Fraternity. Based on 26 responses:
9 countries have indicated only the Spanish language or a preference for it
4 countries have indicated only the French language or a preference for it
3 countries have indicated only the English language or a preference for it
2 countries have indicated only the Portugese language or a preference for it
1 country (Austria) has indicated only the German language
6 countries have indicated a variety of languages: English, French, German and Italian
In those countries which have an elevated level of education it is noticed that, other than the dominant language, other languages are also used on the international level (English, French, German and Italian).
The above indications are valuable in order to decentralize the work of translations of texts and documents which, based on the four languages actually used by CIOFS, have been burdensome and have noticeably slowed the operation of the Presidency.