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Message of John Paul
II to the SFO General Chapter 2002
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
1. I receive you all with joy and give to each one my hearty welcome: to the
members of the Presidency of the International Council of the Secular
Franciscan Order, both new and previous,, to all the participants in the
Tenth General Chapter and, through you, to all the Secular Franciscans and
members of Franciscan Youth present in the world.
In this General Chapter you have brought to a close the up-dating of your
fundamental legislation. You now have in your hands the Rule, approved by my
predecessor Paul VI, of happy memory, on the 24th August 1978; the Ritual,
approved on the 9th March 1984; the General Constitutions definitively
approved on the 8th of December 2000; and the International Statutes,
approved in this Chapter. It is now necessary to look to the future and to
set out: Duc in altum!
The Church expects from the Secular Franciscan Order, one and only, a great
service in the cause of the Kingdom of God in the world of today. The Church
desires that your Order should be a model of organic, structural and
charismatic unity on all levels, so as to present itself to the world as a
"community of love" (Regola OFS 26). The church expects from you, Secular
Franciscans, a courageous and consistent testimony of Christian and
Franciscan life, leaning towards the construction of a more fraternal and
gospel world for the realisation of the Kingdom of God.
2. The reflection, carried out during this Chapter, on "The vital reciprocal
communion in the Franciscan Family" pushes you to commit yourselves evermore
in the promotion of meeting and understanding especially within your Order,
then before other Franciscan brothers and sisters and finally, with maximum
care, as St. Francis wished, in your relations with the hierarchical
authorities of the Church.
Your renewed legislation gives you optimal instruments for carrying out and
fully expressing the unity of your Order and its communion with the
Franciscan Family within precise coordinates. In it there is, above all,
provision for the service of animation and guidance of the Fraternities,
"co-ordinated and connected according to the norm of the Rule and the
Constitutions"; such service is indispensable for communion between the
Fraternities, for the coordinated collaboration between them and for the
unity of the Secular Franciscan Order (cf. General Constitutions SFO 29.1).
Also the "spiritual assistance as a fundamental element of communion", to be
carried out collegially on the regional, national and international levels
is important (General Constitutions SFO 90.3). Of decisive importance is
finally the collegial service of the altius moderamen, "entrusted by the
Church to the Franciscan First Order and to the Third Order Regular", to
which the Secular Fraternity has been attached for centuries (cf. General
Constitutions SFO 85.2; 87.1).
I earnestly hope that the new Presidency of the International Council of the
SFO (CIOFS) will continue the path undertaken by the preceding one towards
the goal of a true and single body, in fidelity to the charism received from
St. Francis and to the fundamental line of the renewed legislation of your
Order.
3. In the meeting of more than twenty years ago, on the 27th September 1982,
with the participants of the General Assembly of your International Council,
I exhorted you to: "Study, love, live the Rule of the Secular Franciscan
Order, approved for you by my predecessor Paul VI. This is an authentic
treasure in your hands, harmonised with the spirit of the II Vatican Council
and corresponding to what the Church expects from you" (Teachings, V/3,
1982, page 613). I am pleased to be able to address analogous words to you
today: study, love, live also your General Constitutions! These exhort you
to accept the help that, in order to fulfil the will of the Father, is
offered to you through the mediation of the Church by those who have been
established in authority and by your Confreres.
You are called on to give your own contribution, inspired by the person and
message of St. Francis of Assisi, in speeding up the advent of a
civilisation in which the dignity of the human person, corresponsibility and
love will be a living reality (Cfr. Gaudium et Spes 31 ss). You must deepen
the true foundations of the world-wide Fraternity and create everywhere the
spirit of welcome and the atmosphere of brotherliness. Commit yourselves
firmly against all forms of exploitation, discrimination and marginalisation
and against all attitudes of indifference towards others.
4. You Secular Franciscans, by vocation, live belonging to the Church and to
society as inseparable realities. Therefore, you are asked, above all else,
to bear personal witness before all in the environment in which you live:
"in your family life; in your work; in your joys and sufferings; in your
associations with all men and women, brothers and sisters of the same
Father; in your presence and participation in the life of society; in your
fraternal relationships with all creatures." (General Constitution SFO
12.1). Perhaps blood martyrdom will not be asked of you, you are certainly
asked for the testimony of consistency and firmness in fulfilling the
promises made at Baptism and at Confirmation, renewed and confirmed in your
Profession in the Secular Franciscan Order. In virtue of this Profession,
the Rule and General Constitution must represent for each one of you the
reference point for everyday experience, on the basis of a specific vocation
and a precise (cf Promulgation of the General Constitutions of the SFO). If
you are truly spurred on by the Spirit to achieve the perfection of charity
in your secular state, "it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of
mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity" (Novo
Millennio Ineunte 31). It is necessary to commit oneself with conviction to
the "high measure of ordinary Christian life" to which I invited all the
faithful at the end of the Great Jubilee of 2000 (Ibid.).
5. I do not want to conclude this message without recommending you to
consider your family as the primary environment in which to live the
Christian commitment and the Franciscan vocation, giving within it space for
prayer, to the Word of God and to Christian catechesis, and making every
effort to respect all life, from conception and in all situations, until
death. It is necessary to act in such a way that your families "show
convincingly that it is possible to live marriage fully in keeping with
God's plan and with the true good of the human person: of the spouses and
especially of the children who are more fragile" (Novo Millennio Ineunte
47).
In this context, I exhort you to take up the Holy Rosary, which, "by age-old
tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer that brings
the family together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes
towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to
communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive one another and to see their
covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God" (Rosarium Virginis Mariae
41). Do it with your gaze on the Virgin Mary, the humble servant of the
Lord, disposed to his Word and to all his appeals, who was surrounded with
inexpressible love and was designated Protector and Advocate of the
Franciscan Family by Francis. Give witness to Her of your burning love, in
imitation of her unconditional availability and in the effusion of a
confident and conscious prayer (cfr SFO Rule 9).
With this wish, I heartily impart to you, Secular Franciscans and to you,
members of Franciscan Youth, a special Apostolic Blessing.
The Vatican, 22nd November 2002
John Paul II
(Source: CIOFS 2005:14)
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