Report of the CIOFS Presidency to the 2005 General Chapter

Special Situations

Activities of the CIOFS Presidency

Special Situations

1. Unity of the SFO

- General situation

The news from the national Council of Korea that one regional fraternity that had separated itself from obedience is now fully reintegrated into the single regional fraternity, means that as far as we know no other situations exist that fragment the unity of the Order at its different levels, except for the case of Italy.

- The situation in Italy:

To bring you up to date:

During this period we have traveled a long, tortuous road, with its lights and shadows. The Presidency continues to accompany the national fraternity and its national Council, which was elected in 2002. During this time:

• The Sentence of the Apostolic Signature was received. This confirmed, by a majority vote, the decision of the Congregation, which the dissenting party had interpreted differently.
• The National Council set up the Co-ordinating structures in each region, in many of them by adding those fraternities assisted by the OFM’s.
• Six unified regional chapters have now been held, with a large attendance from the local fraternities, of every “obedience”, and the establishment of the respective regional fraternities. Only 2 to 6 local fraternities, assisted by the OFMs, dissociated themselves from these chapters. All of these chapters were immediately appealed against, either by an individual from the region, or by Argia Passoni.
• Six further chapters are planned for this year and for the Spring of 2006.
• The CIOFS Presidency postponed by at least a year the holding of the national Chapter, which was to have taken place in the Spring of this year, in order to achieve a larger and more representative electoral base.
• It was with great sorrow and amazement that we received the declaration by an Assembly, whose legal basis is unknown to us, stating that they wished to dissociate themselves from the CIOFS. The Presidency replied to the entire SFO in Italy, clarifying the repercussions of such a decision for those who might choose to support it; it would mean their leaving the Order, with all the consequences of such an act.
• We have continued to hold various meetings with the Congregation (CICLSAL). In the latest of these, the Minister General was accompanied by the National Minister of Italy and the OFM General Minister;
• A meeting with the Conference of General Ministers;
• Following the Sentence of the Apostolic Signatura, we requested – unsuccessfully - the “Altius moderamen” of the said Conference.
• There have been various meetings with the OFM Minister General, who supports the organic and structural unity of the SFO in all its aspects.

Later we will present to you one further specific point related to this subject.

2. Belgium

There is ongoing contact with this part of the SFO, in order to reach a peaceful solution to the state of separation existing within the national Fraternity. We have had many contacts, and a single new national Chapter, composed of the Flemish part alone, has not been authorised. Following the last fraternal and canonical visitation held recently, the decision was confirmed to constitute two regional fraternities within one single national Belgian fraternity. Its accompaniment will continue.

Activities of the CIOFS Presidency

1. Composition of the Presidency

70% of its secular members were changed. In other words, of its 10 members: Encarnación del Pozo, Rosalvo Mota, Wilhelmina Visser-Peslma; Doug Clorey; Benedetto Lino, Félix Mbete; Lucy Almiranez; Carlos Moura, Maria Consuelo de Núñez and Xavier Ramos, only the first three belonged to the previous Council. This meant making an effort to adapt and get to know the new members, which all of us did with goodwill and joyful conviction.

The Presidency considered it necessary to set up the following commissions to focus its work in specific areas, indicated buy the Chapter:

• Formation
• Economy
• Juridical
• Jufra
• Presence in the world
• Communications.

2. Meetings during the triennium

Ever since its election, the Presidency has met twice each year, after having fixed the dates of all the meetings for the sexennium. This means that since the elections it has met five times, 4 in Rome and once in Assisi, in April 2003 and April and November 2004 and 2005.

In addition to its meetings, the Presidency members have kept in permanent touch via email for consultations and to tackle various questions that required immediate solutions. Members of the Presidency ran various meetings, between the Minister General and other Presidency members, of the Minister General with the CAS and meetings of all the Commissions.

Because of the situation of the SFO in Italy, there were frequent meetings of the Minister General and other members of the Presidency on this subject, and meetings with the National Minister, the Minister General OFM and the Congregation.

3. Spirit of the meetings

Given that many of these meetings lasted for several days, we found it necessary to treat them as moments lived together as a small fraternity, so that, in addition to the hard work and long sessions required, we also made sufficient time for:

• prayer,
• our own formation, on matters of topical interest in church, society and the Order,
• fraternal sharing.

4. Resignations from office

During this period we had two resignations:

• that of the French language Councillor, Felix Mbete, for reasons connected with his work, as he could not get time off in order to attend the Presidency meetings, and the difficulty of communication with the Presidency from within his own cultural area. The Presidency accepted his resignation at its meeting in April 2005, and consultations are under way between the international councillors of the area with a view to finding a replacement, in accordance with Art. 16.3 of the FiSFO Statutes.
• and of the Portuguese language Councillor, for personal reasons. Similar consultations are now taking place for the resignation to be accepted and, if necessary, to find a replacement.

5. Changes of General Spiritual Assistants

During the triennium the OFMConv. General Assistant, Fr. Valentín Redondo, elected Minister Provincial of Spain, was replaced by Fr. Martín Pablo Bitzer from Argentina.

On the other hand, after the General Chapter, Fr. Ivan Matic, OFM. General Assistant, was confirmed in office.

In both cases the contacts envisaged in the Constitutions and the General Statutes for Assistance with the respective Ministers General, Fr. Joachim Giermek and Fr. Jose Rodriguez Carballo, were maintained in a fraternal spirit.