Lay Franciscans in the Missions

On October 5, 2003, John Paul II canonized three new saints, three luminous witnesses of the missionary service: Saint Daniel Comboni, Saint Armold Janssen and Saint Josef Freinademetz.

Saint Daniel Comboni, Italian, and Third Order Franciscan, is the founder of the Combonian Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus and of their Missionary Sisters Combonian Holy Mother of Nigrizia, who can be counted among the organizers of the missionary movement which experienced an extraordinary revival in the 19^th century Church. Saint Arnold Janssen and St. Josef Freinademetz can be considered teacher (founder) and disciple of the extraordinary religious family of the Divine Word, constituted of missionaries and cloistered nuns which, from the first nucleus at Steyl in the Netherlands, has spread today with their 9,500 members in 63 countries, faithfully serving the Kingdom, to the very extremes of the earth.

With their canonization, the Holy Father presents us these new saints as three "champions" of evangelization, who have engaged all their human and spiritual resources so that "the preaching of the Good News, first and principal expression of love of neighbor" (as Saint Arnold loved to repeat) would be offered to all humanity.

However, that's not all. The three saints, whom the Church now honors with joy, remind us of the missionary vocation of our baptism. Each Christian is invited to the missions and to be authentic witnesses for Christ striving constantly for holiness (see Redemptoris missio, 90) Here, then, is the contemplative life through the constant way of perfection in the "presence of the image of Christ, sent by the Father," which together with active life are the two natural elements in all the baptized. The Church, with renewed inspired strength, from the Decree Ad Gentes to the more recent encyclicals of John Paul II, recommends that these duties do not refer only to religious, or to priests, or to nuns; the Holy Father calls everyone to be "collaborators in Christ Jesus."

If the missions are for everyone, how can the SFO help today in missionary cooperation?

Essentially, in two ways: accomplishing mission by irradiation, and mission by consignment.

In Christian countries the laity cooperates with the evangelization work in the following concrete ways:
-- Developing in oneself and in others the knowledge and love for the missions;
-- Encouraging vocations in their families, in catholic schools and associations;
-- Offering help of whatever kind, in order that the gift of faith, received freely, can be given also to others;

The Franciscan laity has the commission to announce Christ "by their life and words," (Rule 6) promoting initiatives to "help spread the Gospel, removing the causes of marginalization and serving the cause of peace".

On the one hand, then, it is expected that every Fraternity would be missionary by irradiation, so that some members may be called to be missionaries sent to other peoples. This is, of course, an individual vocation but also a gift that the Fraternity gives to all sister Fraternities in the world, or to the formation of new ones. In this case, the entire Fraternity must be involved in the work of its missionaries, supporting the task of evangelization and of human advancement, with prayer, hospitality, information and reciprocity. Missionary service thus becomes the vehicle of consolidation of the faith not only of a single member, but also of the whole Fraternity: "faith is reinforced by being given." (RM 1)

Missionary animation and the formation of candidates to be sent are commitments that all Fraternities must try to respond to positively and with generosity. Especially in those national realities which even today extend beyond geographic areas of pastoral competence and thus do not have a firm base of Christian community, or whose Christian faith is yet to be grounded in the popular culture, it is the duty of the local SFO to go forth "into a new region of the world so that it too might respond to the mission of proclaiming and bearing witness to the Gospel of Christ" (ChL. 35), to structure adequate forms of missionary sensitization for its own members, to organize formation initiatives of concrete engagement to support the missions and, when called by the Lord, to accompany the lay missionaries from the sending forth to the return home. A concrete invitation is to choose and charge some members of the fraternity, at every level (local, regional, national or international) to deepen and promote initiatives -- "courageous" (Rule 15) -- analogous with the pioneer fervor of the three holy missionaries which we celebrate as examples of "docility to the Spirit," going forth, with little means and a few people (against failure and incomprehension) into the heart of Africa or China.

As an initiative most significant in regard to the formation of the laity for the missions, we can mention the Italian SFO, which, in answer to the invitation of their Bishops to start new types of lay presence in the missionary service, in the form of association, founded the Missionary Center (Ce.Mi.OFS) with its own headquarters, to coordinate and to promote activities of missionary animation for all local and regional fraternities of the Order, to propose associations with national and international voluntary service; with the specific task to offer, to those of the secular Franciscans who ask for it, formation courses and technical and spiritual preparation for departure to the missions.

The Center organizes national meetings for the missionary animators (themed conventions) open to all the Italian Fraternities, and a specific assembly for the missionary delegates nominated by the regional Centers, because even at the decentralized levels, forms of cooperation with the various components of the Franciscan family are promoted. On the other hand, especially for some of the most sensible young members of the Franciscan Youth, formation encounters and courses of preparation to become an international volunteer are organized, such as exchanges with the fraternities of Albania and Cameroon. In the last three years, 20 volunteers from the local fraternities were sent for brief periods in "exchange with the churches and other kinds of missionary cooperation", helping the missionary brothers in activities of social animation in the parishes. Above all, it is with particular joy that we are able to give the most important news that we can share here: the Italian SFO on October 19, through its national minister Rosa Galimberti, commissioned the first couple of lay Franciscans being sent to Venezuela. After an intense period of formation at the Ce.Mi.OFS and of specialization at the Centro Unitario Missionario founded by the Italian Bishops Conference, Ilaria and Marco Petri left for South America, sent by the Italian SFO and by the Bishop of Prato, to be welcomed by the SFO and the Bishop of Guanare where the Conventual Franciscan Brothers have a Custody. Others are now waiting to be sent to other destinations.

Two examples, finally, of how mission can be developed in typical secular situations. Comboni was the great defender of the rights of the African population, victims of the trade of slaves taken to the American continent, through the channels of government that existed in his time: a person to merit a Nobel prize. Janssen was an incomparable evangelist through the press. To teach people to think globally and be concious of the interdependence of people and their Church realities; to promote justice, development for the poor population and the liberation from the mechanisms that generate exploitation and underdevelopment; dissemination of information and structuring collaborations above the national, are the new frontiers inside the SFO family in order to cooperate with the sole mission of the Church.