Are we co-responsible for the Presidential Council of CIOFS?

Maria Aparecida Crepaldi
macrepal@cdmil.com

From the moment that we become part of a Secular Franciscan Fraternity, we belong to this Order all over the world. It is important to recall that our Secular Franciscan vocation grants us great dignity and that, living it, we are answering the Lord, the Order, the Church and society. This becomes for us a simple and yet profound reality: we are, all together, the builders and caretakers of the Secular Franciscan Order in the entire world.

Therefore, the XI General Chapter of the Order which took place in 2005 in Assisi, formed a new Economic Commission, with the objective of restoring the financial conditions to facilitate the continuation of the regular activities of the CIOFS Presidency. To accomplish this task, the Commission has already sent two circulars to every country: CIOFS no. 37-0208 and no. 40-0208, soliciting special attention and generous response. The reason for this is that formation, communication, and the autonomy of a fraternity, in any level, depend on economic resources.

With a healthy economy, the International Fraternity will be enabled to better care for the infrastructure adequate to its work. We already have a new CIOFS Center in Rome, which means that we are already taking a great stride in our international outreach. Such achievement makes us very happy, but it also implies responsibility to our financial planning and budgets without having to depend on external resources, which are exceptionally welcomed and needed, but not for our basic expenses.

Clarity and transparency in the economic information of the Council in all levels pave the way to credibility not only in economics, but in every situation. This is the objective we want to follow in the development of a project at the level of the International Fraternity.

Two-way communication is essential to successful work. To know the actual number of SFO members in each country is essential to develop a budget of income compatible with expenses. It is important to be very clear about what the fraternities can expect in the application of the contributions they make to CIOFS. In ordr for this to take place, it is important to balance out every year, the projections, what was actually received, and what was expended.

Our behavior in economic questions is directly related to our living the Rule. If we want transparency, if we are protagonists in evangelization, the example starts at home, in our Fraternities at all levels. We cannot have credibility if the information we collect does not match the reality in each nation. All the brothers and sisters in every level are co-responsible for the life of the Fraternities in all levels.

All the countries can and ought to work in accordance with their reality, but in the case of contributing to the SFO, we need to take into account first what the Rule says in article 29: each one is personally responsible according to their own resources and if the collection is not sufficient to cover the obligations of the Fraternity’s Council, the Council will have to use other means, such as book sales, promotion of events, handicraft bazaars, etc... We suggest that the Fraternities that are still not properly organized plan their balanced budgets of income and expenses and get used to being accountable during the Chapters, because this will promote the formation of autonomy and co-responsibility. The work of the Treasurers in the Councils is of extreme importance in the demonstration of clear application of the resources of the Fraternities.

During the Pastoral Visitation from the General Minister of the OFM, Fr. José Rodriguez Carballo, to the Council of the CIOFS Presidency in April 2006, referring to the precarious economic situation of CIOFS, he observed that there’s no lack of money, what we lack is solidarity. And he exhorted us to be more generous in our contrubution to the growth and strenghtening of the SFO. We know that we have many very generous brothers and sisters, yet, I am inviting each one of us to review our own personal budgets to verify whether we are prioritizing our expenses in accordance with the important commitments that we have made in our lives. Among those, we know that our vocation occupies a primary place.

It is necessary to pay attention to the signs of the times and not let ourselves be led by consumerism and even by religious marketing, since we get solicitations from everywhere and need to know how to apply well what we have, according to our real needs.

Trusting in the presence of the Holy Spirit which acts in the hearts of each one of us, and in the validity of the Secular Franciscan vocation, the Economic Commission of CIOFS wishes to serve all our brothers and sisters of the SFO with great responsibility and fraternal affection.

Congo D.R. – SFO National Fraternity was constituted.

Hervé Silva from Maurice Island, Presidency Councilor and Ivan Matic, OFM, General Assistant, have completed a Fraternal and Pastoral Visit, on May 8 – 21, 2006, to Congo D.R.. They met at the cities of Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Kolwesi and Mbujimayi, where they found the way to meet with different members of the local and regional SFO fraternities together with their Spiritual Assistants. The purpose of the Visit was to officially constitute the national SFO fraternity of this huge country and celebrate the first National Elective Chapter.

At the end of the visit, between 16-19 May, the first National Chapter took place in Mbujimayi, closed to Sr. Clare’s convent, during which the National Fraternity was officially constituted. On May 19^th, the first National Council was elected and Honoré Prospère Mulumba was elected as their National Minister and International Councilor. For all these reasons, the Chapter has been a historic event not only for Secular Franciscans but for the whole Franciscan Family, even though the tremendous social and financial difficulties this country is going through.

The SFO at the Congo D.R. started during the year 1968 and at this very moment they have 9 regional fraternities and 72 local fraternities, con approximately 1300 secular Franciscans between professed and members under initial formation. National Assistant is Fr. Pierre Kabamba, OFM. In many places there are also some Franciscan Youth fraternities, who are very much willing to organize themselves in regional and national leves.