In its intensive period of meetings in February 1998 the General Definitorium decided that the first “Course for OFM Formators” should now take place, leaving its organization to the Secretariate for Formation and Studies.
The course will be held at the Antonianum in Rome from 6 September to 3 October of this year in Italian and Spanish. Next year it will be held in German, English and French. For this year the plan is for 34 Formators to take part from the following Conferences or Provinces: the Italian, Iberian, Cono Sur, Bolivarian, and Mexican/Central American Conferences, Poland, Lithuania, Egypt, Holy Land and Albania.
The course will have two parts: theoretical and practical. Topics to be treated will include sociology, anthropology, psychology, pedagogy and spirituality. At the week-ends there will be visits to the Franciscan sites.
Br. Luigi Giacometti, Guardian of San Damiano, wrote to us on 7 March: “We still have a difficult situation, but thanks to the prompt repair work done with the help of the offerings of the friends of San Damiano, we have been back since 1st November of last year to celebrate the liturgy and open the Sanctuary to pilgrims at the usual daily times. Damage remaining in the building will take some years to be repaired: the bell-tower has become detached from its base. It has been caged in to prevent its falling on the roof of the Oratory of St. Clare. Perhaps it will have to be demolished and reconstructed. Likewise work is needed on the structures and roofing of the Room/Chapel of St. Mary. In March we began the restoration of the church nave.
“The novices' quarters require a complete reconstruction of the roofing, consolidation of the walls, re-paving. The 13 novices with their three responsible religious have been forced to move to the Spineta at Fratta Todina, Perugia, to finish their year of Franciscan formation in peaceful surroundings. Their return to San Damiano is planned for a year's time. The living quarters of the professed religious will have to be rebuilt in their entirety. The supporting structures have been shaken and weakened. Cracks and subsidence have made them quite unusable. After the departure of the novices the Fraternity is composed of 6 religious, joined by another two friars from the community of Santa Chiara who were left with nowhere to stay. Some live in a corner of the friary building, others in a prefabricated dwelling donated by friends from a Milan parish.
“The work of re-building requires an investment of considerable amounts of money and will be difficult. The funds for the work undertaken since the earthquake have come from friends and benefactors who have remained faithful in their support of San Damiano.”
The following letter has been received from Br. Benediktas Jurcys, Minister Provincial of Lithuania: “After more than 50 years of persecution, years in which many of our people died for the faith, the Church survived, thanks to the stamina of our clergy and of our laity. The Church lost most of its churches, monasteries and institutions of education. Our own Franciscan community was salvaged by the heroic efforts of our brothers who found refuge in America. Now our Provincial Curia has been permitted to return to Kretinga in Lithuania (Pranciskonu Vienuolynas/Vilniaus, 2/ 5700 Kretinga / Fax:+370 58-51490), and I have been elected its first Lithuanian Provincial since the Communist takeover. Much must be done to re-establish our Franciscan family on a strong footing. We cannot do it alone. Your moral and financial support is needed. Our religious institution, as the Church of Lithuania, is not supported by the government. Our people are doing all they can but they are trying to put their own lives together and it is extremely difficult. That is why I am extending my hand out to you, in the name of Jesus and in the name of our beloved Father Francis. In return we promise to work diligently to promote the mission of the Church amongst our people. Also, you and your loved ones will ever be remembered in our prayers and Masses.”
From 29 May to 1 June there will take place at Liège in Belgium the third meeting of the inserted Fraternities of Europe. The inserted Fraternity, or “small fraternity”, is one which tries in a particular way to live in solidarity with and in the midst of the poor and marginalized in society and the Church, sharing with them their precarious way of life and work. The first and second meetings took place in Grosskrotzenburg (Germany) in 1996 and 1997.
For further information please contact
On 19 November 1997 the Government of Taiwan honoured 56 foreign missionaries for their dedication in the service of the poorest and neediest of the land. The celebration took place in one of the most beautiful of the hotels of Taipei in the presence of 200 guests and religious leaders. Half of those being honoured were Catholic missionaries, including four Friars Minor: (1) Br. Quinto Fraboni, 28 years in Taiwan, known for his charity towards the old, children and handicapped, particularly among those without a family. (2) Br. Michel Delile, in Taiwan since 1961, founded in 1969 the “Little Flowers of Taiwan”, a traditional dance group, the primary aim of which was to encourage young people from the countryside and the periphery of the towns to turn their dancing into a form of good neighbourliness. The group has appeared more than 500 times and has undertaken Continental tours five times, including Continental China. The little dancers are known today as the cultural ambassadors of Taiwan. (3) Br. Alban Mai arrived in Taiwan in 1966. He has concerned himself with drinking-water, street repairs, ecumenical relations and medical assistance for the poor people in the underdeveloped areas. (4) Br. Alberto Papa, been living among the aboriginal poor since 1964. Besides having built many churches and published a grammar of one of the local dialects and a book of traditional popular songs, he founded a seminary for aboriginal vocations.
From 19 June 1998 all telephone calls within and to Italy must include the “0” prefix.
On 19th February Fr. Rodrigo Amédée Peret was assaulted by Military Police during the forceful eviction of 120 families in Santa Vitória (Minas Gerais) in Brazil. These families had been expelled on five previous occasions and twice had their crops destroyed. The JPIC Office wrote a letter to the Governor of Minas Gerais and to the General of the Military Police condemning these actions and denouncing the use of violence against the people and against the friars and the “pastoral workers” accompanying them. The Office also asked the various Conferences and Franciscans International in New York and Geneva to do likewise. The Office supports the right of people to have work and a place to live, and is bringing pressure to bear on the Brazilian government to achieve agrarian reform by political action on the part of the State.
From 12 to 15 February 1998 the European members of the International Franciscan Council for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation met together in Geneva, as had been suggested by the Council at its meeting in September 1997 at the General Curia. The meeting had two aims: to get to know personally the work carried out by Franciscans International together with the Dominicans at the United Nations in favour of human rights and refugees; and to consider together the problems arising in Europe in the area of JPIC. Present were the members of the Franciscan delegation at the Geneva Office, Br. John Quigley and Miss Alessandra Aula, as well as the Vice-Director of the JPIC Office at the General Curia, Br. Gearóid Francisco ó Conaire. The European coordinators considered the following problems: how to support the activity of Franciscans International in Geneva, how to educate the friars of Europe to the values of JPIC, how to play a role in the Franciscan Mission for Peace project in Colombia, how to work together on the problems of refugees and migrants in Europe, what initiatives to consider for the Jubilee Year 2000. Concrete proposals will be put to the Union of European Provincials next autumn. A second meeting is planned for February 1999 in Madrid.
From 1st to 5th March a second “Franciscan Peace Mission” took place in Costa Rica, Central America, as part of the agreed-upon priorities of the JPIC Coordinators of the Conference of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico and Central America). Their first peace mission was to Chiapas in June 1997 with the participation of six OFM friars, a Franciscan Sister, a Secular Franciscan and a laywoman. Becouse of the recent massacre after Christmas of 45 people, their call to the government and the EZLN (National Liberation Army) guerrilla forces to renew the dialogue based on the “St. Andrew's Agreement” is even more relevant and important.
In the same spirit, Fr. Oscar Granados, OFM, the JPIC Coordinator for Costa Rica, along with other members of the Franciscan Family in the area of the Conference, wants to investigate and highlight possible abuses by mining companies intent on using open-cast mining techniques which involve the use of the poisonous (and deadly) substance cyanide. The friars are working closely with a coalition of NGOs and with the local diocese.
For further information you can contact Fr. Oscar at his parish: Parroquia Santa Rosa de Lima, Pocosol San Carlos
Alajuela, Costa Rica Tel/fax: +506-4-777048.
A group of Franciscan Brothers, Sisters and volunteers in Philadelphia serve about 500 meals every day to the homeless, poor and sick. The volunteers, men and women, have been collaborating for a year with the friars of Holy Name Province: they live a simple life style, living in the community whose poor they serve, and seeking an opportunity for spiritual growth through Christian solidarity and their service of the needy. “Since this programme began in 1989 we have had 112 volunteers come to us, five to fifteen a year, to serve the poor in Boston, Buffalo and Philadelphia”, said Stephanie DeBenedetti, who directs the programme.
Since 1946, first in Panama and now in Fort Benning, Georgia, U.S.A., the School of the Americas has trained over sixty-thousand soldiers from Latin American countries. Many of these soldiers have been accused of serious human rights violations. The Pentagon eventually admitted that between 1989 and 1991 anti-subversive techniques were taught which included instruction in summary execution and torture. Some of the greatest violators of human rights in Latin America have passed through this School, as for example General Pinochet of Chile, General Manuel Noriega of Panama and Major Roberto D'Aubisson of El Salvador who on 24 March 1980 murdered the then Archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero.
A movement founded by a Maryknoll priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, called the “School of Americas Watch”, has been petitioning the U.S. Congress, albeit unsuccessfully, to have the School closed. Last year an independent petition to have funding cut was nearly passed, causing great consternation among the School's supporters.
In November a decision was taken in San Salvador, with members of the Franciscan Family of El Salvador and members of the “Americas Watch” desk from the United States, to co-ordinate their efforts in Latin America through the JPIC Office of the Franciscan Family in El Salvador. This work will be done together with other religious and Church groups and NGOs.
In addition to their own campaigns freely organized by each country, it was decided to promote a day of fasting and prayer in front of all the U.S. Embassies in Latin America on 27 April 1998. At the same time our North American brothers and sisters will be protesting in front of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington.
For further information please contact Marizza in San Salvador at the following Fax number: +503-2-220216, or directly the School of Americas Watch at P.O. Box 3330, Columbus, GA 31903-0330; tel. +1-706-682-5369, E-Mail: soaw@derechos.org
Courageous choices in the area of initial formation will naturally lead to a closer attention to the area of ongoing formation: what is at stake here is the quality of life of the Province and of our Fraternities. It is a question above all of creating a common outlook which raises our consciousness of the fact that every day of our lives we are called upon to `learn' how to be friars, no matter what our age, our cultural preparation, or the richness of our experience.
Committing ourselves to a realistic programme of ongoing formation will certainly be a help towards improving the capacity for communion and for communication among the friars. The first form of the proclamation of the Gospel is the witness of a Fraternity which, called together by the Word of God, allows itself to be shaped by that Word and in its light commits itself to the way of communion”.
Letter of the Minister General to the Tuscan Province, 13.11.97
As proposed by the Executive Committee which met in Rome in November 1997, the General Definitorium has approved the meeting of the International Council for Formation and Studies to be held in the United States from 17 to 24 November 1998. The topic proposed is “Studies and our identity as Friars Minor”. The Secretaries for Formation and Studies of the Conferences are members of the Council.
Br. José Pereira das Neves (63)
The Holy Father named:
From 31 August to 25 September at St. Antony's International College in Rome there will again be held an intensive Italian language course. Those interested are asked to sign on for this before 20 July through their Minister Provincial. The cost of the course is 425,000 Lire plus the cost of board at the College (30,000 Lire per day). .
Bookings should be made with:
Also the Centro Francescano di Cultura “Oltre il Chiostro”, which co-ordinates and promotes cultural activities in the Province of Naples, is organizing an intensive Italian language course for foreigners from 6 to 31 July and/or from 3 to 28 August, a total of 80 lessons.
It is possible to obtain a Diploma in Franciscan Studies, convalidated by the University of Kent, at the Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury, England. The course aims at furnishing those who work in formation with a solid basis for Franciscan renewal. The course may be completed in one year or in three sessions of ten weeks each distributed over up to five years, and it includes an optional study pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi.
The course is given by Brothers and Sisters of the First and Third Orders. It embraces topics in Franciscan history, spirituality, theology and law. Because students from the whole world take part in it, it is also an occasion for coming to know how the Franciscan charism is lived in the different parts of the world. The Franciscan Study Centre is common to the three English Provinces of Friars Minor, Capuchins and Conventuals and was established in 1973 at Canterbury, the location of the first Franciscan friary in England. During the summer there is also a month-long English language course. For further details contact The Principal, Franciscan Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NA, England.
Tel.+44.1227.769-349/Fax.+44.1227.786-648
La novitas franciscana nel suo essere e nel suo divenire
The book, the third of a trilogy, deals with the novitas franciscana “within the constitutive evangelical projection of religious life, within the structural projection of religious institutes, within the constitutive projection of apostolic institutes, within the structural, innovative, and legislative projections of apostolic religious life”. Text in Italian.
San Damiano Today
Appeal from Lithuania
News Items Great and Small
Inserted Fraternities:
Third Meeting
Fr. Yves Soudan
rue de Momalle 139, B-4347 Fexhe-le-Haut-Clocher (Belgium).
Tel/fax: +32-4250-11-60.
Recognition in Taiwan
Italy: Change in All Telephone Numbers
Therefore from that date to call, for example, the General Curia in Rome from abroad, you must dial:
New General Visitators
Province of St. Paul (Colombia), for the Vice-Province of S. Felipe de Jesus (Mexico)
Province of S. Leopold (Innsbruck, Austria) for the Province of St. Bernardine (Vienna, Austria).
Engagements of the Minister General
Assault on Br. Rodrigo Peret
Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation at Geneva
Costa Rica: Franciscan Peace Mission
Franciscan Volunteers: Service to the Poor
Campaign for the Closure of the School of the Americas (SOA)
Reflection of the Minister General
International Formation and Studies Council
New Provincial
has been elected Minister Provincial of the Province of Portugal.
Roman Curia
Intensive Italian Language Courses
Br. Sandro Overend - Via Merulana 124, I-00185 Roma,
fax: +39 6-70-37-36-14
or with the Secretariate for Formation and Studies Curia generalizia
Via S. Maria Mediatrice 25 - I-00185 Roma, fax: +39-6-63-80-292. eMail: formgen@ofm.org
Cost: 600,000 Lire per person.
Bookings by 10 June.
For further information contact: Dott.ssa Biancini - E-Mail: oltreilchiostro@tlxeuro.net - tel: +39-81-55-20-205.
Franciscan Spirituality
Franciscan Bibliography
Br. Andrea Boni, Col. Spicilegium Pontificii Athenaei Antoniani, 33, Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum, Rome 1998, pp. 652.
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