SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 9 - N. 9 - 2003 - February - IV
From: CIOFS Secretariat
Rome, November 15-23, 2002
(Part I)
Peace and all good.
The present report can help us all better understand the bonds which unite the whole Franciscan Family and the service that you, secular Franciscans, expect from us as we strive to be: "a concrete sign of communion and co-responsibility" in the same Franciscan charism (SFO Rule, 26).
Six years ago the elective General Chapter, which was celebrated in Rome from July 7th to the 14th, 1996, studied the question: Which SFO for the Year 2000? The topic was discussed in linguistic groups and the Chapter emphasized the responsibility of SFO leadership in a kind of slogan consisting of three verbs: to animate, to guide and to coordinate the Fraternities towards a more meaningful presence of the SFO in the Church and society at the beginning of the third millennium.
The action program developed by the Chapter was more or less this:
-- To animate: to intensify formation at all levels of fraternity in order to strengthen the sense of belonging to an Order of penance, one which is Secular and Franciscan, to raise the civic consciousness of secular Franciscans in the areas of "Justice, Peace and care of creation," and to stimulate the formation of the friars to improve the quality of assistance.
-- To guide: to encourage active participation of the international councilors and General Spiritual Assistants in their respective areas, to empower fraternal and pastoral visits and to maintain the unity of the Order in the areas of norms, structures and guidelines for formation and ministry.
-- To coordinate: to encourage communication between fraternities at all levels: local, regional, national and international, horizontally and vertically, and also between spiritual assistants of the SFO on all levels with the Conference of General Spiritual Assistants (CAS).
The three specific aspects of the assistants' action -- assistance,animation and formation -- are realized in a true spirit of collaboration within the Conference of General Spiritual Assistants, between the Conference and the CIOFS' Presidency Council, and with the Conference of Ministers General of the First Order and the Third Order Regular.
The general assistance to the SFO has the following goals: to foster communion with the Church, to witness to the fraternal affection and bond of communion with all those who want to live the charism of Saint Francis, and to actively cooperate in formation. It is realized collegially through and within the Conference of General Spiritual Assistants. The animation of friars to know and assist the SFO is the task and competence of each General Assistant regarding his own Order. But they work together in this endeavor as they stress the aspects of the collegiality, unity and autonomy of the SFO.
Another expression of this collegial Assistance to the SFO are the meetings of the president in turn of the Conference of General Spiritual Assistants with the Conference of Ministers General (December 27, 1996 and April 10, 2000). In addition, the Conference gives an account of its functioning to the Conference of Ministers General through a short annual report.
The Conference of General Spiritual Assistants (CAS) at the beginning of this six year period was composed of Fr. Carl Schaefer, OFM (Australia), who was replaced by Fr. Nils Thomson (United States) in January of 1998 after 14 years of service as a General Spiritual Assistant, Fr. Ben Brevoort, OFMCap (Indonesia), Fr. Zvonomir Brusac' TOR (Croatia) and Fr. Valentín Redondo, OFMConv (Spain).
On August 1st, 2000, Fr. Nils Thompson was replaced by Fr. Ivan Matic' OFM (Croatia) and in June of 2001 Fr. Michael Higgins TOR (United States) took the place of Fr. Zvonimir Brusac'.
At the present time the Conference is made up of Fr. Valentín Redondo OFMConv (President), Fr. Ivan Matic' OFM (Secretary), Fr. Ben Brevoort OFMCap and Fr. Michael Higgins TOR.
The collaboration between the Assistants has always been and continues to be excellent.
The frequent meetings of the Conference of General Spiritual Assistants take one of three forms:
Once a year the Conference meets for a period of three or four days to study a topic, to plan the coming year and, above all, to live in fraternity.
These yearly meetings take place at a different friary of one of the four orders which form the Conference. At times the members study specific themes in detail, like the nature and contents of the document on "Altius moderamen" (November 5-8, 1996, at Camerino), and the "Guidelines on the formation of the religious for the knowledge and assistance to the SFO" (November 10-13, 1997 at Arezzo). For two years we have reflected on the theme of the unity, autonomy and secularity of the SFO (November 30 - December 2, 1998, at Civitella del Tronto; and, November 29 - December 1, 1999, at Loreto). The meeting of 2000 was dedicated to a still unfinished program for formation of Spiritual Assistants (Massa Martana, November 6-9, 2000). After the approval of the revised text of the General Constitutions of the SFO on December 8, 2000, we have accordingly revised and adapted the Statutes for Spiritual and Pastoral Assistance to the SFO (L'Aquila, November 26-29, 2001).
With the exception of the holiday month of August, the Conference meets generally once a month. The topics discussed in these meetings can be summarized under three headings which the Conference needs to reflect or to take a position before taking specific action: animation, formation and collaboration in the study and solution of problems posed by the day to day life of SFO Fraternities. Furthermore, at these meetings the members share reports of pastoral visits, program participation at national chapters, and the delegation of someone if none of the General Assistants can be present at a chapter or meeting.
The monthly meetings normally take place in the General Curias or in the CIOFS Secretariat.
Apart from these meetings, which normally are fixed during the planning session of our live-in periods, there are a number of other meetings which are much more frequent and are held the needs of the SFO warrant them.
Every second Friday of the month, except in August, a prayer meeting is held at the CIOFS Secretariat, in which the General Spiritual Assistants, the Minister General and the collaborators at the secretariat participate. It is yet another occasion to share news regarding the life of the International Fraternity and to update programs of meetings, visits or national elective chapters.
To these meetings we need to add the work of translating and correction of articles for the CIOFS Bulletin and other publications and correspondence.