Franciscans are good people
by Fred Schaeffer, SFO

We are blessed to have good people in our Franciscan Orders. The last two weeks of November, 2008, I was in Hungary, in the mountain town of Dobogókö at an elevation of about 660 meters. This town has a ski slope and even a church, and a large hotel conference center formerly of the Jesuit Order and many pictures of the beautiful surroundings can be found at:
http://www.manreza.hu/foto/fo_album.html

At the time of the first snow, I was told, which we had during our stay, there are always automobile accidents on the narrow, twisting road that goes up the mountain, because people haven't adjusted their cars to winter gear yet. And so, we were taken off the mountain one day early to overnight with a local family, the Geiszehardt family of Piliscsaba (to whom I am very grateful), some 25-35 minutes drive from the conference center, down the hill. Others stayed with Tibor Kauser, SFO (and his friends) nearby. Tibor was the coordinator of the sponsoring Hungarian National Fraternity for the meeting, and is also International Councilor for Hungary and has been elected to Presidential councilor for English-speaking area 1 (N. America and Europe) at this Chapter.

It was a beautiful experience and I am very grateful that CIOFS invited me to attend and also defrayed my costs since I was one of the Communication Team inputting information into the website at the meeting site.

Many National Fraternities of various countries (68 ?) were represented either by their National Minister or International Councilor, and this made for a very dynamic and international group of people, from all cultures, with a common purpose and immediate goal. As a result, there was a real family atmosphere and I felt very much at home even though most were strangers. It is evident in any meeting or gathering that when you get to know people, you are strangers no longer.

Our principal photographer (Bob and Mary Stronach, SFO, of Marcy, NY) have assembled a large photo array of many hundreds of images of the meeting, and this link is on the CIOFS website.

There are at least 430,000 professed members in the Secular Franciscan Order, see http://www.ciofs.org/circ/gia8en68b.htm - These are good people because they are devout Catholics who have in their hearts a common goal, and by the grace of God, renewed their baptismal promises and consecrated themselves to the service of His kingdom. In their secular state (or member of diocesan clergy, as applicable, they promised to live all the days of their lives, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Secular Franciscan Order by observing its Rule of Life. And we ask: "May the grace of the Holy Spirit, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and our holy father Saint Francis, and the fraternal bonds of community always be my help, so that I may reach the goal of perfect Christian love.

To reach the goal of perfect Christian love is a lifetime task, but in order to accomplish this, each individual Franciscan needs to live a life of Christian love for sister and brother. I am very sure that among those I have met at the XII^th General Chapter of the SFO, there are many who are very close to reaching that goal. They are the movers and the shakers, people who are active within an active Order. They are into personal (and also communal) projects to benefit many other people at ground level. There is a very special person I am thinking of, Wilhelmina Visser Pelsma, SFO of Turnhout, Belgium who is instrumental with her husband, Hans,  in funding and installing irrigation pumps in impoverished areas in Burkina-Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) in West-central Africa, so that forgotten people will get irrigation going to plant, grow and sell crops. She showed me many pictures in her computer and I was amazed what one or two good people can accomplish for the poor. There are many good fundraising groups in the world, but many line their corporate pockets first before giving to the poor who really need the help. This husband and wife team generate funds exclusively for the poor, and they are Franciscans whom I've met on my journey.

There are many Franciscans, individually or collectively, who do a lot of good work, not only from the Secular Franciscan Order, but of all other Franciscan Orders. We share in our common charism, Franciscan charity toward the less fortunate, the downtrodden, poor, brothers and sisters in the world.

We should regard all people equally and with love. It doesn’t matter where they are from, where they are going, what religion they observe, or used to – all that is unimportant. We Franciscans meet them where they are at, and try to help. That also goes for people whom we do not care for, necessarily, because they lead a lifestyle other than our own.  I participate in a Prison Ministry Apostolate, and I would normally not care to talk to someone who has committed a heinous crime, but when they need help, I talk to them because as St. Francis puts it, we are to accept all people with a gentle and courteous spirit, as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ. I didn’t used to think this way, but St. Francis has changed me.

It is to all these good people that I say "Thank You" for allowing me to be your webmaster, a service I render gratis, and when you do something for free, you will see that many good things begin to happen. And among these good things is the Chapter I was just permitted to attend. Praise God!