To reflect on the expectations of the Secular Franciscans as regards the local Assistant or Animator in the SFO fraternities which are coming or will come into being in those countries which only yesterday were subject to a totalitarian regime, is to ask first of all that we dwell briefly on human and social conditions in those countries.

As you know very well and certainly better than I do, the kind of human behavior which evolves in an ideological environment which exercises control over people's conscience, in my opinion constitutes an indispensable introduction to every discourse aimed at building up "mature" Franciscan communities.

In the report presented to the European bishops at their meeting in 1985, Cardinal Daneels makes this observation: "One of the specific characteristics of Europe is its post-Christian condition, a condition which extends from the Atlantic to the Urals". Applying this observation to the countries of the former URSS, it must be borne in mind that we are talking about a post-marxist situation characterized by among other things a return to the religious dimension.

However, the ideological collapse of Marxism left deep scars and the damage they caused are to be seen as much in the economic as in the moral field. The return to the religious dimension will not halt the moral degradation of society as long as the family, work and man in general are also in crisis. Apropos of this I would like to quote an interesting passage from an article written by Julii Szreider, a Moscow philosopher, who describes the situation as follows: "We understood perfectly well that the total economic collapse was brought about by us, and that a kind of man was formed who was incapable of acting autonomously and responsibly. This human model follows from the fact that we lived in an isolated world on which an all-out ideological process left a definite mark.

If this is the picture - and the little experience we gained at the seminar for lay people held last year here at Cracow, is confirmation - the Franciscan message must not only revive the attachment to fundamental values but must also teach independence of judgment, a sense of personal responsibility, a willingness to work together.

What must be avoided at all costs is the notion that a Fraternity is only a "way of escaping" from the harsh and degrading reality around us, a reality where the ideology on the way out is being replaced by the values of consumerism and relativism; a culture threatened by the primacy of individualism and the niggling demands of lower needs to the detriment of higher ones.

At last year's seminar for the laity, I sensed that an attitude of pessimism prevailed in the face of the situation being created, a new fear taking the place of the fears of the preceding regime. This could give rise to a tendency to withdraw, an urge to be among people cultivating similar ideals, speaking the same language, getting by on the same values.

Finally, what must be avoided is the viewpoint, held by others as much as by themselves, that the Franciscan laity are the end-product of the apostolate of religious or simply the people who carry out their pastoral programs. The lay people should develop an awareness of their role as "agents" of evangelization and of mission: this is always very difficult if the priests themselves do not acknowledge that the laity have such a role.

Having said all this by way of introduction - which in a certain sense describes the position of the Assistant/Animator in the new Fraternities of Eastern Europe - I will try to spell out our expectations in concrete terms.

VOCATIONS PROMOTION

Before all else, there is the expectation that the SFO will be "promoted". In our countries, to promote the SFO means to implant it all over again. It means leaving completely out of consideration any possible after-effects from the past, even if they have importance and significance because they bear witness to how deep are the roots of the Franciscan message and how tenacious is the attachment of the lay faithful to it. The SFO of the past, the memory of which is preserved in many places, was mainly made up of devotional practices and external signs (banners, habits, scapulars, cords...). The revised SFO - after the Second Vatican Council, after the Pauline Rule and General Constitutions of 1990 -is a genuine Order, characterized by secularity, autonomy and unity.

The "expectation" is that you present the SFO to the lay faithful who work around you and with you, as a genuine vocational proposition: "the brothers and sisters, led by the Spirit, strive for perfect charity in their own secular state [and] pledge themselves by profession to live the Gospel in the manner of Saint Francis and by means of the Rule approved by the Church" (SFO Rule, art. 2).

We are talking here about choosing for life: "the Rule and life of the Secular Franciscans is this: to observe the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by following the example of St Francis of Assisi ..." (SFO Rule, art. 4).

We are talking about a choice for the whole of one's life: "Profession by its nature is a permanent commitment" (SFO Rule, art. 23.3).

The "vocational" nature of the SFO has insights and repercussions at the level of vocation discernment and on the level of the formation. In a first phase at least, for as long as the Fraternity and the secular leaders will not have been set up on a permanent and adequate basis, discernment and formation are mainly, if not exclusively, in your hands.

ESTABLISHING THE FRATERNITIES

With the completion of the initial formation phase, if there are not professed Secular Franciscans in the area, the President of the International Council of the SFO, taking each case separately, will be able to delegate a religious, male or female, to receive the profession of the new brothers and sisters, notwithstanding the SFO legislation (Constitution and Ritual) which reserves this competence to the secular leaders.

Once the minimal requirements fixed by the General Constitutions (at least five professed members) have been met, the President of the International Council of the SFO, according to the norm of art. 46.3 of the Constitutions and following the request of the brothers and sisters concerned, will make provision for a move towards the canonical erection of the local or personal Fraternity.

The local Fraternity is the one normally visualized as the "basic unit of the whole Order" (SFO Rule, art. 22) but the General Constitutions provide also for the possibility of establishing personal Fraternities "for specific and valid reasons recognized in the decree of establishment (CC.GG. art. 28.3; cf. also art. 60). Given the vastness of the territories and the diaspora conditions in which the religious live, it is my belief that valid reasons could obtain in your countries for also setting up by way of exception some personal Fraternities.

In the canonical erection phase, three main interested parties seemingly interact:

- the brothers/sisters concerned, who make the request;

- the Presidency of the International Council of the SFO, which must take it into consideration;

- the Major Superior, who is the competent authority to issue the decree.

And the Father Assistant? Even if it is not sharply defined in law, his role always remains most important. Who better than he will be able to assess on the spot and with firsthand knowledge the degree of maturity attained by the group and its suitability to rule itself in full autonomy? Who better than he will be able to brief the Presidency of the International Council of the SFO on the steps to be taken?

Having finished with the canonical erection and the election of the first Council, the Fraternity commences its own autonomous life and the role of the Assistant is measured in the terms determined by the Statutes for Assistance and by all the SFO legislation, of the kind amply illustrated by the General Assistants who have preceded me.

However, there are some "expectations" which, strictly from the viewpoint of the Secular Franciscans, I am anxious to emphasize by returning to the three characteristics of the SFO: unity, autonomy and secularity.

1. Unity of the SFO

On the basis of the General Constitutions, "each local Fraternity, the primary cell of the one SFO, is entrusted to the pastoral care of the religious Franciscan Family that canonically established it" (Art. 47.1). This is confirmation that the SFO is one, despite the multiplicity of the Obediences entitled to erect a local (or personal) Fraternity and responsible for giving it spiritual assistance and pastoral care.

Gathered here, you are friars of different Obediences and together with the General Assistants who have given the preceding reports, you represent the four Franciscan Ministers General. I speak for the "one SFO", which expects of you an impartial commitment to the spread and growth of the Secular Franciscan presence. The vocational promotion which you go about developing, the Fraternities which you bring into being should not be, cannot be "of Paul, of Apollo, of Cephus"; they cannot be OFM Fraternities or Conventual Fraternities or Capuchin Fraternities, but only and exclusively SFO Fraternities. And this will depend to a great extent on the Assistants, because the seculars bond themselves emotionally and affectively to the reality they are familiar with and which often is the only reality they are able to recognize.

In making this point, I do not wish to say that the specifics of your respective spiritualities should not also extend to the Secular Franciscans who receive spiritual guidance from you (and on the other hand "the plurality of expressions of the Franciscan ideal" is a richness which cannot be denied - cf. CC.GG. art. 33.2); I wish simply to say that the spiritual similarity should not be converted into "separatism" at the heart of the SFO. This is something which unfortunately has happened on former occasions in the past, with consequences hard to eliminate.

2. Autonomy of the SFO

According to the former Constitutions, a distinction was made in the case of the SFO between "external" and "internal" government. The former, with the power of jurisdiction, pertained exclusively to ecclesiastical authority and to the Superiors of the First Order and of the TOR. The internal government pertained to those people chosen by the tertiaries from among their own members, who had to exercise particular offices for the good of the Fraternity. At the head of the internal government was the Director, normally a religious priest who, designated by the Superiors of the First Order and of the TOR, acted as the link-man between the external government (or the authority of the Order) and the internal government (or authority of the Congregation).

In practice, the Director was everything in the life of the community: he organized it, he programmed its activities, admitted the new members, presided over meetings of the Fraternity and of its Council, etc., etc. A commentator once wrote: "The Director of a community is its real superior and head; without him, it would become acephalous and could not operate".

Today the situation is radically changed: "At the different levels, each Fraternity is animated and guided by a Council and Minister (or President), who are elected by the professed according to the Constitutions (SFO Rule, art. 21.1). The Father Assistant is a member of the Council and he collaborates with it in all its activities (cf. CC.GG. art. 89.4).

Collaboration, communion, co-responsibility: these are the "expectations" of the Secular Franciscans regarding the Assistant, even if often, specially on the part of the seculars, one comes across an attitude of dependence, nurtured by the reverence and respect which the priest always commands because of his high mission and theological training.

The Letter of the Minister Generals on the "Vocation and mission of the Franciscan laity in the Church and the world" expresses it very effectively: "The work of the Spiritual Assistants... today less extensive in the area of direction and organization, can be and will have to be more profound, e.g., spiritual support and assistance in forming the brothers and sisters."

It remains to be said that at least in the initial phase, the seculars are not prepared for their role of animation and guidance of the Fraternity; they are not ready for autonomy. The Minister Generals, in the Letter just quoted, recommend: "The recognition of the responsibility pertaining to the seculars should not be transformed into a passive attitude of laissez-faire, but should be an active attitude of promoting and collaborating so that they fulfil their own vocation and mission". To be trained for autonomy, to be trained for a sense of responsibility, for working in common, for dialogue, for a spirit of initiative: this is what the Secular Franciscans most expect of their Assistants, specially in your countries (if what was highlighted in the introduction to this intervention holds true).

The revised Rule, in full agreement with the teaching of the Magisterium, underlines the presence of the Secular Franciscans in the field of evangelization proper to the laity: the family, the workplace, the promotion of justice, public life, initiatives in favor of peace, the safeguarding of creation..., in short, "the service for building up the Kingdom of God within the situations of this world (CC.GG. art. 17.1).

During the course held for the seculars last year, I got the impression that they had in them a great readiness and a profound conviction of wanting to collaborate in the service of ecclesial communities. I did notice , however, a certain diffidence and reluctance for the spread of the Gospel message "in the common conditions of the world". The themes of family, of work, the economy, politics, gave rise to a certain negative reaction, as if the painful experiences they lived through in the past and from which they have not fully recovered, had created an incurable break between their life of faith and their ordinary daily living. But the point is precisely this: should the Secular Franciscans (and the laity in general) be able to lend their own support and respond with new cultural and social values to the great problems of the moment?

Undoubtedly there are not many who are ready for this kind of collaboration and dialogue. A woman-consultant at the 1989 Synod had this to say: "The passivity and indifference still commonplace among the laity remain one of the greatest challenges for the local Churches".

This challenge is all the more urgent in your local Churches where there is a pressing need to repair all the damage caused by marxist ideology in the moral and social field, where the wounded have to be healed, the hungry filled, hope restored, worthwhile goals put forward ...in an unceasing and all-out effort to go "from the Gospel to life and from life to the Gospel" (SFO Rule, art. 4).

What we expect most of all of our Assistants and Animators is an adequate incentive that the laity, in carrying out their Christian and Franciscan duty, may learn how to overcome the real fears, uncertainties and restraints of daily life, in their environment, in their activities.

The preparation of the lay Franciscans is often not sufficient to allow the brothers and sisters to live out adequately their mission in those areas proper to the laity. Our expectation (which is a real challenge) is on the level of formation, in the sense that a spiritual and cultural foundation should be given to the lay Franciscans so that they can serve more creatively and more fruitfully in building up the Kingdom "through the witness of their fraternal love and clear Christian motivations (CCGG. art. 19.1).

Questions for discussion

1. In the one Franciscan Family, made up of friars, Sisters and lay people, what place can/should the laity have in the new evangelization of the CIS countries?

Are they to be considered as being the recipients of the work of the religious or involved in the work?

In what way can the setting up of SFO Fraternities enlarge the area in which the Franciscans are present in the CIS countries?

2. Are there problems for the link-up between the Fraternities established by the different Obediences of the friars? If the answer is Yes, what active steps can be taken by the Spiritual Assistants and the Presidency of the International Council of the SFO so that the infant SFO of the CIS may develop an awareness of belonging to the one SFO?

3. What instruments can be brought to play so that the Fraternity can be brought to the point of self-government according to the SFO Constitutions without depending, even if only psychologically, on the Father Assistant? What specific formation should the secular leaders of the Fraternities receive?

4. How encourage and stimulate the Secular Franciscans towards a strong and courageous commitment to family life, civil life and political life? What can the Spiritual Assistants do? What can the Presidency of the International Council SFO do?