The following message from CIOFS (the International Council of the SFO based in Rome), was received today, and forwarded to the Fraternity Ministers in our Region by our Regional Minister:

The following forwarded message was received on February 10, 2005, from Carlos Caldaron, SFO:

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Penance,

A blessed Lenten Season for one and all.

I write to ask for your prayers for the repose of the soul for a dear friend, Deacon and Doctor Jim Ambury SFO. Deacon Ambury was the founding minister of my local fraternity, St. Thomas More Fraternity, in Arlington, VA, and Jim Lynch told me that at one time, between elections, Deacon Ambury had served as acting National Minister.

He was a wonderfully warm and gentle man, an old-time country doctor like you can't find any more, deeply humble and spiritual. He had a full and blessed life. His wife Frances and both of his sisters, Margaret and Adeline, and one of his daughters, Angela, were all Secular Franciscans. He is survived by three daughters, eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. For those of us who knew him, it was just like him to enjoy all the Holy Christmas Season and welcome in the New Year, and then slip away at the beginning of Lent!

Again, your prayers are requested for Jim and his family. If any one wishes to make a memorial contribution, Deacon Ambury directed that that contribution be sent to the Poor Clares, to whom he had a great devotion and for whom he regularly offered Benediction. Their address is The Poor Clare Monastery/2505 Stonehedge Dr./Alexandria, VA 22306-2451.

For those of you who can attend, here are the details for Deacon Ambury’s wake/funeral/burial.
Visitation: Murphy Funeral Home, 4510 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington on Thursday, February 10, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Prayers will be offered at 7:30 p.m.

Funeral Mass: Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, 24th & S. Ives Streets, Arlington on Friday, February 11, at 12:00 noon.

Burial: Following Mass at Columbia Gardens.

Reception: Following burial a reception will be held at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish (Lourdes Center).

May the angels sing him to his rest, and may his soul, and the souls of all the faithfully departed, rest in peace.

 

NEWS

SECULAR FRANCISCAN ORDER IN THE UNITED STATES

and

THIRD ORDER OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. FRANCIS, PROVINCE OF THE AMERICAS



 

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The following message was received from Dody Martin.
(Sent by Carlos to inform us all about our National Minister, READ!  Love, Dody:)
We're indeed in very good hands!

Pittsburgh Catholic
Established in 1844: America's Oldest Catholic Newspaper In Continuous
Publication Friday March 19, 2004
 
News & Features

Monaca woman named national minister of Secular Franciscans
by: Chuck Moody

Carol Gentile believes the Holy Spirit was involved in her being elected as national minister of the National Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order of the United States and only the second woman to hold that position.

“The Holy Spirit is in charge, not man or woman,” Gentile said. “My purpose is to serve God, and if this is where he wants me at this time in my life, I must answer ‘yes’ to the calling.”

Gentile, of Monaca, is a member of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Center Township. She is an active member of the parish choir and, prior to leadership roles in the Secular Franciscan Order, she served the parish as a Eucharistic minister, taught religious-education classes and gave presentations to CCD classes.

She was elected in October 2003 in Santa Barbara, Calif., during the order’s annual national conference. Gentile, who previously served the order as coordinator of apostolic commissions, will serve until 2006. She is the first woman to become national minister since 1976.

The order, formerly known as the Third Order of St. Francis, was established by St. Francis of Assisi early in the 13th century. Members do not live in community, but live their everyday lives in the world.

The National Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order is an order within the Catholic Church, Gentile said.

“We are called to follow Christ in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi,” she said. “In various ways and forms, our purpose is make present the charism of our seraphic father in the life and mission of the church. Secular members strive to live the Gospel in the manner of St. Francis by spreading the Gospel by word and example.

“We are all members of a local fraternity, which is a privileged place for developing our sense of church, our vocation and ministry.”

The Secular Franciscan Order is divided into fraternities of various levels — local, regional, national and international.

The local fraternity is established canonically. Admission into the order is through a process of formation. There is a period of time during which various steps are taken: orientation, initial formation and profession.

“Profession by its nature is a permanent commitment,” Gentile said. “The Secular Franciscans have a Rule of Life to follow, which is simply going from Gospel to life and life to Gospel in our everyday lives.”

Members participate through commissions: formation, family, work, peace and justice, ecology, and youth. There are some 17,000 SFO members in 741 fraternities in the United States.

Gentile works at Gentile-Meinert & Associates, a private investigative agency co-owned by her husband, Louis, as a consultant after more than 30 years in the health field. Her expertise is in pharmacology and training. The Gentiles have two daughters and an adopted son.

While firmly preserving the co-responsibility of the national fraternity council for the animation and guidance of the national fraternity, it is the duty of the minister, who has the primary responsibility, to see that the directions and decisions of the council are put into practice, Gentile said.

“An important area of responsibility is to direct and coordinate, with the national leaders, the activities of the national Franciscan community and to preside at and to confirm the elections of regional fraternities and to make fraternal visits to the regional councils, personally or through a delegate who is a member of the national council,” she said.

Gentile said her concentration as minister “is to provide a less corporate atmosphere in which we can be more intergenerational.”

“Teaching the very young about Christ and Francis,” she said. “To continue to be inclusive toward all denominations. To witness to each other how Christ works through our lives and continues to be the center of all our lives.”

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January 15, 2004
From:  Carlos Calderon, SFO, Regional Minister
To:   All Regional Fraternities

Subject: Request for donations to help rebuild a church in Africa


Dear Brothers and Sisters in St. Francis:

Pazy Bien!

I am writing to you on behalf of a co-worker of mine who is a Counselor at the rehabilitation center where I work. He is originally from Nigeria but is now in the United States with his family. He is the father of five children, all in college. His family are members of Ascension Catholic Church in Orlando, where Fr. Steve Baumann, SFO is pastor.

The situation in Central Nigeria is very difficult. It is a predominantly Muslim country where Christians suffer for their faith in many ways. The Catholic Church in his hometown was recently destroyed by heavy rains, and funds are desperately needed to help rebuild this parish church, which is very important to the developing Catholic faith in this part of the world.

My friend is leaving for Africa on March 11 and is hoping to be able to take with him donations to present to his home parish for its reconstruction. Enclosed is a letter from this church which explains some of the situation they find themselves in.

I would like to ask you to please discuss this at your February fraternity meetings and consider a possible donation to this project. Since time is of the essence, your timely response is greatly appreciated. Please send any donations you may feel inclined to give to: Pamela Nagle, SFO, Regional Treasurer (Your fraternity will know her address)

Checks should be made payable to SFO. A single donation from our Region will then be made to this church, based on the amounts we receive.

Thank you for your consideration and your generosity. May God bless all of you.

St. Augustine's Catholic Church
P.O. Box 43
Unugu, Eha-Amufu
Enugu State, NIGERIA

9/1/03  

Dear Sir,


I am directed by members of St. Augustine's Cath. Church family to inform you that our nearly completed church building (including the gallery) totally collapsed after a rain storm. Our appeal is that CATHOLIC FAITH must be propagated in this community.

We have no other alternative since our former place of worship (the school building) had been demarcated by UNICEF leaving no room for us to worship.

On this note, St Augustine's family do solicit that you come to our aid financially, so that buttress can be made to rebuild the church, We enclose for your viewing the annihilated church building photograph.

We thank you in God's name for your generosity and may you in God's grace be rewarded,

Yours in Christ,

(signature)
Peter C.  Odoh
Secretary, St. Augustine's Cath. Church.


(signature)
Elias Ede
Chairman, St. Augustine's Cath. Church,

(signature)
Vincent Ogbu
Catechist, St. Augustine's Cath. Church.


 

---

(Received 11-14-2003)

The 25th anniversary of the Rule

Last May the CIOFS Presidency sent a message to all brothers and sisters of the Order, inviting them to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the approval of the Pauline Rule.

Now that we are well into the commemorative year we want to keep alive the call to reach the proposed objectives:

1. To deepen both the "life-giving union with each other" within the Franciscan Family and the contemplative dimension of our vocation. In this we will be helped by the special contacts we need to maintain with our sisters in the Second Order as we celebrate together the 750th anniversary of the death of Saint Claire.

2. To strengthen substantially the secular dimension of our Way of Life by maintaining a more lively and active presence in society.

3. To increase the sense of belonging to the Order by a serious commitment to life in Fraternity and by assuming our responsibility for its economic maintenance.

We must continue to justify the confidence of His Holiness Pope Paul VI when he handed over the Rule with his apostolic blessing so that "the form of life preached by that admirable man of Assisi will gain a new impetus and will flourish vigorously" (Seraficus Patriarcha), offering to the Church a fresh and renewed fidelity to our vocation.

We must not miss the opportunity offered to us for spiritual renewal and evangelical radicalism as a life option with its personal and community dimensions.

May our eminently evangelical and christocentric Rule, and its magnificent prologue: Letter to all the Faithful, (of which we must deepen our understanding), enable us to perceive "the fragrant words"
which The Lord addresses to each one of us.


FRANCISCAN FAMILY

OFM General Minister: Brother Jose' Rodri'guez Carballo

Brother Jose' Rodri'guez Carballo was born in Lodoselo Orense (Spain) in August 1953. He entered the Order in 1970 at the Province of Santiago of Compostela in Spain. He was ordained by Paul VI in June 29, 1977. After receiving his degree in Bible Theology in Jerusalem and a degree in Sacred Scriptures from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, he taught these disciplines in the major Seminary in the Spanish city of Vigo and in the Faculty of Theology of Santiago of Compostella. In the province, he has been Guardian, Master of Postulants, Master of Novices, Master of Temporary Professed, Provincial Secretary for Formation and Studies, Commissary of the Holy Land, Provincial Assessor, elected
Provincial Minister, President of the UFME (Union of Friars Minor of Europe). He was elected Assessor general of the Assisi Chapter in 1997, and he has been Secretary general for Formation and Studies from 1997 to 2003.


Message of Encarnacio'n del Pozo to the OFM General Chapter

My dear Brothers,

The Lord give you Peace!

On occasion of your elective General Chapter, it is my joy and pleasure to greet you most cordially in name of the Secular Franciscan Order and of the Presidency of its International Council.

"[Francis'] constant wish and watchful concern was to foster among his sons the bond of unity so that those drawn by the same Spirit and begotten by the same father should be held peacefully on the lap of the same mother. He wanted to unite the greater to the lesser, to join the wise to the simple in brotherly affection, and to hold together those far from each other with the glue of love" (2Cel 191). The convocation of your General Chapter begins with these words, and we take part in these feelings and desires. We feel ourselves very much at one with you in prayer and ask God to shower upon you the abundance of grace and the light and strength of the Holy Spirit to sustain you in the work of the
Chapter and in choosing those who will guide the Order of Friars Minor for the coming six years.

You are a fundamentally important part of the great Franciscan Family and any decision taken by your Chapter, even if it concerns directly your own Order, will be meaningful and important for the rest of the Family and therefore also for us Secular Franciscans.

Our last General Chapter discussed the "life-giving union with one another" and you contributed significantly to the reflections on this fundamentally important aspect of our life through the person of br. Stefan Ottenbreit, who was convincing and very much appreciated.

We observe with joy that the awareness of being one family is growing among Franciscans, religious and lay, united in the common mission of  "repairing the Church" entrusted to St. Francis by the Crucified,
through the single charism of our common Seraphic Father, which we seek to make present in life and in the mission of the Church.

"Fraternity in mission". This is the guiding theme, more relevant than ever, of your chapter reflection. As Secular Franciscans, we are convinced that this mission can be fully realised only as a Family,
thanks to the complementarity of all its components, religious and lay, especially in the current secularised and multi-religious context.

In our General Chapter too, the importance of formation was strongly stressed as a fundamental aspect of any effort to open up to the world and to bring a strong Christian witness into the world through the
active presence of our charism and our concrete involvement in public life. We do therefore share in the topics and accents indicated by the outline of your Chapter discussions and we look with trust and great expectation to all that you will continue to contribute generously to us, to the whole Franciscan Family, to the Church and to the world.

We thank you for the service you are giving us, as always, with dedication and fraternal love to the benefit of the whole SFO, together with the other branches of the First Order and of the TOR, by assisting our Fraternities. We feel the urge to invite you to remember that the Church has entrusted you with the spiritual and pastoral care of the SFO: you have accepted this responsibility at the moment of canonical erection of each single local Fraternity! Now that the General Constitutions of the SFO offer so many possibilities to guarantee this service, please take care that no local Fraternity would lack spiritual assistance (see General Constitutions, art. 89).

May Francis and Clare, the 750th anniversary of whose death we are celebrating, assist you in your work and guide you. May their intercession and that of the Virgin of the Angels, our Protector and
Advocate, obtain for you the abundance of divine grace to be, in perfect joy, faithful and effective continuers of the work of our Seraphic Father in the third millennium.
 

NEW (Received 11-4-2003)
Carlos Calderon, SFO, FFMR Regional Minister, sent us the following information concerning the National Fraternity's Elections: First of all the main event of this week's meeting was the Executive Council Elections for the National Fraternity.  The Holy Spirit was truly working in these elections.  We are pleased to announce to you the following brothers and sisters who will be serving the Secular Franciscan Order in the US for the next three years:

Minister: Carol Gentile (Monaca, PA - formerly the Apostolic Commissions Coordinator)
Vice Minister:   John Sanborn (Grand Island, NY - formerly NAFRA Treasurer)
Secretary:  Elizabeth Allen (Chula Vista, CA - reelected as NAFRA Secretary)
Treasurer: Dennis Ross (Mentor, OH - formerly Regional Min. for Saint Maximillian Kolbe Regional Fraternity)

Councilor:   Diana Halal (Los Alamitos, CA - reelected as NAFRA Councilor)
   Mike Carsten (Fenton, MI - formerly Regional Minister for Divine Mercy Region)
Kathy Taormina (Apple Valley, MN - also Youth and Young Adult Commission Chair)
 

International Councilor:   Juan Lezcano (Federal Way, WA - reelected as International Councilor)

Fr. Lester Bach continues to serve as the representative of the Conference Of Spiritual Assistants to the NAFRA
  Executive Council.

DECREE

The Presidency of the International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order has examined the “Statutes for SFO National Fraternity – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” presented for approval, and has found them in
conformity with the legislation of the Secular Franciscan Order and with
the requisites of the life of a Secular Franciscan. Thus, through this Decree, the Presidency approves and ratifies the Particular Statutes of the National Fraternity of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA according to the text approved and proposed by its National Council.

The definitive text will be kept in the archives of the National Fraternity of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and in the Archives of the CIOFS Secretariat  (International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order).

Given at Rome, July 4, 2003
 
Encarnacion del Pozo
Ministra General SFO

The following is a letter from the SFO Minister General, forwarded by our National Minister, Bill Wicks.
 Note especially item #2.
 
   Rome,  May 22, 2003
 

To all Brothers and Sisters of the Secular Franciscans Order and to all Young Franciscans

Circ. 3/02-08

Brothers and Sisters,

God give you Peace!

Following the General Chapter and the audience with the Holy Father, the year 2003 is a year of grace and celebration for: the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Clare and for the 25th Anniversary of the approval of the Pauline Rule.

In this context, the Presidency recommends that all the Franciscan Order focus on the following themes:

1. Franciscan Family.

The General Chapter reflected on the theme "the Mutual life-giving communion in the Franciscan Family," a reflection which, as secular Franciscans, we propose to deepen during the entire silver Jubilee year of our Rule (24 June 2003 - 24 June 2004).

The celebrations of St. Clare should be another occasion for each one of us to meditate on the contemplative dimensions of our vocation, indicated in Art. 8 of the Rule to "let prayer and contemplation be the soul of what they are and do."

We suggest some initiatives:

-- Remembering Clare's desire to meet Francis, let us visit a Poor Clares monastery so as to share a moment of fraternal life: a prayer, a meal, a fraternal exchange of experiences.
-- As part of the ongoing formation, concentrate on the writings of St. Clare: the Rule, the Letters and the Testament, which are a source of wisdom for all of us, so as to ensure that at the end of the Jubilee no one can still say "I don't know much about St. Clare".
-- Let us find ways of sharing moments of formation with other members of the Franciscan Family.
-- Let us try to intensify the relationship between the local SFO Fraternities and the religious community which is responsible for the pastoral care and spiritual assistance.

On the occasion of this Anniversary, each of us, in our respective environments, should find the most suitable means to honor St. Clare, together with the whole Franciscan Family, because, for the fullness of our common charism, her presence and our knowledge of her are necessary.

2. Presence in the world - Secularity

The General Chapter exhorted all Fraternities to live intensely "the spiritual dimension, ad extra more than ad intra". In the last few years, the Order has dedicated attention and efforts to formation, which must continue in autonomy, in the renewal of the legislation... . It is time to take awareness of its secularity, of the sense of its presence in the world as part of its mission not only in the church, but in the society above all. Therefore, the SFO " must open up to the world and become a privileged instrument to bring into it a strong Christian witness by the active presence of the charism of our common seraphic father, St. Francis ", so that the " the world must perceive the presence of the secular Franciscans, who must become, as Francis, authentic and efficacious signs of the presence of Christ in all those things which make up the temporal order, ..." (Conclusions of the Chapter).

In his message to the Chapter, the Holy Father exhorted us: "You Secular Franciscans, are asked first of all to bear a personal witness in the place where you live, before all: in your family life, in your work, in your joys and sufferings, ... in your presence and participation in the
life of society" (CC.GG. 12.1)."

Here again, remembering St. Clare's attitude towards her native home town and following her example, we Secular Franciscans must engage ourselves in the social and political situations of our countries, of our cities, convincingly dedicated to that "high standard of ordinary Christian living" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, n.31), to which the Holy Father invited all the faithful at the end of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000.

3. Sense of belonging to the Order and financial responsibility " The vocation to the Secular Franciscan Order is a specific vocation that gives form to the life and apostolic activity of its members" (CC.GG. 2.1). Our belonging begins with the admission to the Order in the local Fraternity and is confirmed with the Profession of the Rule to live, in our secular state, the Gospel of Jesus Christ following the example of S. Francis, "to whom the Most High revealed the essential Gospel quality of life in fraternal communion" (CC. GG. 28.1), that is, life in Fraternity.

"The brothers and sisters are co-responsible for the life of the Fraternity to which they belong and to the SFO as the organic union of all the Fraternities throughout the world. The sense of co-responsibility of the members requires personal presence, witness, prayer and active collaboration in accordance with each one's situation and possible obligations for the animation of the Fraternity (CC. GG. 30, 1 e 2).

This collaboration is lived and expressed in a variety of ways: in the conviction of the validity of the evangelic-franciscan-secular life and in the necessity to bear witness to this within the society; in the open attitude and willingness to dialogue; in the search for means to live
more intensely the fundamental Franciscan options; in the active participation in the life and apostolic activities of our Fraternities. And also in providing the financial resources necessary for the life of the Fraternities and for their religious, apostolic and charitable works, both individually and through the Fraternities. All this will enable us to attain the true autonomy of the Order: not only autonomy in governing the Order but also administrative, patrimonial and financial autonomy.

In this respect, the Chapter did underline that the "economic contribution from national Fraternities to the International Fraternity is not simply a form of taxation but, on the contrary, it is an expression of vital communion which may originate only from an authentic sense of spiritual belonging".

The Chapter asked the Presidency not to hesitate to constantly insist and solicit national Fraternities, with the help of International Councilors, to perform their duty also in the economic area.

The Chapter has asked the Presidency to propose that each local Fraternity dedicate a day for the collection of funds to purchase a headquarters for the international Fraternity. The Presidency, from her side, proposed to the national Councils that the day of St. Elizabeth be
dedicated, in a special way, to seriously deepen the sense of belonging to the Order, which involves our entire life, and to collecting these funds.

4. Conclusions of the General Chapter.

In concluding this letter, we inform you with joy that, enclosed, you will find the definitive version of the Conclusions of the Chapter. They must be divulged, studied and put to practice at all levels of the Order, as our common program to be developed during the next three
years.

We ask St. Francis and St. Clare to assist all of us, each within his own responsibility, to implement them and to help us spread, in line with the tradition of the SFO, ideas and initiatives capable to ensure the active presence and availability of secular Franciscans in all the places and activities of their ordinary living.

Your Sister and Minister

Encarnacio'n del Pozo
SFO General Minister

Rome, April 28, 2003

To all the SFO National Councils and International Councillors

The CIOFS* Presidency, which met in Rome on March 29th to April 5th 2003, has agreed to send a message to all the Poor Clares in the world on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Clare.

Attached please find the letter that we kindly ask you to distribute to all your local fraternities so as to have it personally delivered to the local Poor Clare monasteries.

Encarnacio'n del Pozo
SFO General Minister
   (*CIOFS=SFO International Council)

April 14, 2003

Dear Sister Clares,

Peace and all good!

During its meeting in Rome, the Presidency of the Secular Franciscan Order recognized the commencement of the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Clare. At this time, we want to greet you and express that we are spiritually close to you, and with you. During this anniversary year, many of our brothers and sisters will also have the opportunity of greeting you personally in your convents spread throughout the world.

Palm Sunday marked an important day in the life of Clare. When we received our palms, we remembered the most important and significant day in the penitential life of Clare of Assisi. Together with her and just like her, and united with you, we want to follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because we are united in living the same charism of our common father, St. Francis of Assisi, we feel close to you in celebrating the 750 years since the death of Clare. St. Clare wrote in her rule: "After the almighty celestial father deigned to illumine my soul through his grace, so that following the example and the teachings of our most blessed father Francis, I might do penance" (Rule 6.1). In the same way, we follow the "example of St. Francis who made Christ the inspiration and centre of his life with God and man" (SFO Rule 4).

We also feel very close to you because we are all members of the larger Franciscan family in which "in different ways and forms but in vital reciprocal communion, we intend to make present the charism of our common seraphic father in the life and in the mission of the Church" (SFO Rule). From your own convents, through silence and prayer, you are the intercessors and the lightning rods for a society that is creating and constructing a better world, but in which there are also signs of violence and an absence of love, the same society in which we are actually living. Please be like Clare, praying before Jesus in the Eucharist so that we, even in spite of the wars that are being experienced, we continue to strive to build a more peaceful world. We intend, from our own cloister, ... the world, the family, the workplace, promotion of justice ..., to be missionaries of the church and builders of a more fraternal world and evangelical society.

We ask you, with the same intensity that Clare requested of Agnes of Prague, that you may continue looking into the "mirror" of your soul and of your vocation, placing your hearts in the one who is "the figure of the divine substance and transformed interiorly into the image of his divinity through the means of contemplation" (Third Letter of Clare, 13). We repeat: please continue looking at yourselves into "the mirror of eternity" so that you may reflect and make alive in the Church and in the world, of which you are part, values such as fraternity, service, disappropriation, manual work, silence, prayer and contemplation, values for which society and the Church thirsts, though at times we are confronted because of our luke-warm way of life and so tied to superfluous things.

Enjoy these values with the courage and the decision with which Clare defended them during her entire life, even through her long sickness.

Let's hope that this 750th anniversary of the death of St. Clare will be for you a moment of encountering the renewed spirit, which opened the way for Clare to enter the Church and the society of her time, and that it will be a time for all of us to reflect and study her writings and spirituality. We recognize in Clare a great mystic from her action and, above all, from her prayer and contemplation. This is made known to us through her very few writings which have been underlined by her sisters during their declaration as witnesses during the process of Clare's
canonization.

We say goodbye, keeping ourselves close to you, just as the master walked at the side of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and in the intimacy sustained by Francis and Clare. We ask your prayers, before the Lord, so that we may live the Franciscan charism as faithful witnesses in the world.

Fraternally yours.

Encarnacio'n del Pozo
SFO General Minister

Presence in the World Commission
April 4, 2003

At its March 2003 meeting, the International Presidency of the Secular Franciscan Order, representing over 430,000 Secular Franciscans worldwide, reflected on the war in Iraq.  During its reflection, the Presidency expressed its opposition to war and to all forms of violence that always bring suffering to the peoples of the world.  It also reaffirmed its commitment to being bearers of peace and to seeking out ways of unity and fraternal harmony through dialogue, trusting in the Divine seed in everyone and in the transforming power of love and forgiveness. 

The Presidency exhorts Secular Franciscans, together with all people of good will, to build a more fraternal and evangelical world, by praying and working for peace in their families, in their fraternities, in their communities and in the world.  As a concrete sign of its solidarity with those who suffer the consequences of war, the Presidency also exhorts Secular Franciscans to express their opposition to violence, through a variety of means, and to commit themselves to building a more peaceful world.  With respect to the war in Iraq, Secular Franciscans are urged to become actively engaged with relief organizations that provide humanitarian support to the people of Iraq and in the rebuilding of their country.

Madrid, February 18, 2003
   From the Minister General of the Secular Franciscan Order.

To the National Councils
To the International Councilors
To all brothers and sisters of the Secular Franciscan Order

My dear brothers and sisters:

In these delicate and dramatic moments of our international situation, when we find ourselves under the threat of war, I send you, with renewed conviction, the salutation revealed to Francesco:  May God grant you peace!  (Testament, 23)

Peace is God's gift, placed in human hands, fragile gift which must be preserved because it touches every level of life:  personal, family, social, political, economic, ecologic… We Secular Franciscans are called to be "bearers of peace, knowing that peace must be built up unceasingly."  (Rule 19)

Let us maintain the hope for peace, living it ourselves and offering it to all those around us as "the fruit of justice, of reconciliation, and of fraternal love, sharing peaceful ideas and attitudes, in our individual initiatives, as Franciscan Fraternity and Family, collaborating with all the movements and institutions that promote peace."  (CC.GG.23.1)   Let us support, with our prayers and our sincere commitment, all the initiatives that the Holy Father is promoting to avoid a war.

Let us also have the courage to be involved with "courageous initiatives" in harmony with our Franciscan vocation, to promote an authentic spirit of peace, recognizing and supporting the truth that human beings cannot be assaulted in their dignity by exploitation and oppression, by the marginalization of their rights, by injustice and powerlessness.  The ethics of peace has at its roots an ethics of justice that involves substantial change in the economic order and in the development of solidarity among peoples.  Without justice there is no true peace, "the work of justice will be peace, the result of righteousness quietness and trust forever."  (Is. 32:17)

As Franciscan-Christians, we cannot remain insensitive or indifferent.  We are called to act as yeast in our environments, "through the testimony of our fraternal love and our well defined Christian motivations"  (CC.GG. 19.1), realizing that PEACE is a universal benefit, indivisible, gift and possession of all people of good will.  Peace cannot be imposed.  God has given it to us "not as the world gives" (John 14:27), but as fruit of the commandment to love.

In these actual circumstances, a small gesture that would identify us with peace wouldn't be too much:  placing a candle or light in our window, a white banner or flag with the colors of the rainbow in a balcony or a door;  a monthly fraternity meeting open to other people, dedicated to prayers for peace;  the Rosary prayed to Mary, Queen of Peace;  Saint Francis's peace prayer…

Let us all be united in prayer, in supplication to the God of Life and of Peace, "fountain of all our good:  that God, who calls us to freedom from oppression and conflict and to cooperation for the good of all, will help everyone in every corner of the earth to build a world of peace, rooted ever more firmly in the four pillars that Blessed John XXIII showed to us all in his encyclical:  truth, justice, love and freedom."  (Message of the Pope in the World's Journey for Peace).

Your sister and minister,

Encarnación del Pozo

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