The General Definitory is ever more convinced that our priority - in the singular - is the spirit of prayer. I do not use the term “contemplation,” which might seem to refer to St. John of the Cross’ third heaven. No. We prefer the language of Francis: “the spirit of prayer.” Why are we convinced of this? Because we see this “fire” missing in the Order. There is much discouragement. There are many who have abandoned this spirit of prayer within religious life, in all the continents, young and not so young. There is a sense, at times, that the amount of work to be done has grown. But often this is a running away, rather than work; running away from others, running away from God.
I believe that the greatest difficulty we have - and it concerns both fraternity and minority/poverty - is the lack of the spirit of the Lord. Fraternity and minority depend on being “in the Lord.” I cannot impose poverty on anyone. It is a free choice, a consequence of our choice of Christ. But if there is no choice of Christ, I can talk for ever about the beauty of poverty, read all the Franciscan sources and it is all a waste of time.
I remember a phrase of Francis which is fundamental for me: “That which the friars must have above all else is the spirit of the Lord and his holy operation” (Rb 10). It is not a matter of having things, nor of having made a choice, nor of having some kind of competence. What we must have, for Francis, is the spirit of the Lord. We cannot rely today on structures. Either our hearts are turned towards the Lord, or we have little to hope for.
The Minister General, friar Giacomo Bini, visited the two provinces of Colombia together with the General Definitor for Latin America, friar Gerard Moore. The Minister met with the two Provincial Definitories and with various groups of friars, to whom he spoke of the Order’s priorities. Moreover, the Minister wanted to find out, “in situ,” about the Justice and Peace Office’s programme called “Peace Mission in Colombia.” To this end he met with the Provincials and those involved in both Provinces. On 6 March, friar Giacomo presided at the inauguration ceremony of the aula magna of St Bonaventure University in Cartagena. The hall, with seating for 593, is one of the most complete and most modern in Colombia.
A group of friars, sisters and franciscan volunteers serve about 500 meals every day in Philadelphia, USA, to people who are homeless, poor and sick. The volunteers, men and women, collaborate for a year with the friars of the Holy Name Province. They have a simple lifestyle, they live in community, and they seek opportunities for spiritual growth through service of the needy and through Christian solidarity. “Since this programme began in 1989, 112 volunteers have come to us, from 5 to 15 a year, to serve the poor in Boston, Buffalo and Philadelphia,” said Stephanie DeBenedetti, the director of the programme.
“St. Francis Residences” are houses which give refuge to around 300 homeless and chronically mentally ill people in the United States. The friars of the Holy Name Province (USA) opened the first residence of this type in 1980, the second in 1983 and the third in 1986. They have been praised by the City and State of New York as a model programme, The friars and lay volunteers provide psychological, medical, social and spiritual assistance. “When someone comes here, we welcome that person for life,” explains friar John Felice who runs the residences together with friar John McVean. “They are not considered sick enough to be kept in hospital, but they are unable to work and look after themselves. If they were not here they would be homeless”. There are over 8,500 sick homeless people in New York.
The Observant Franciscans arrived in the island of Hispaniola (today’s Haiti and Dominican Republic) in 1493. By 1524 around a hundred friars were evangelising the islands of Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba. The famous Enriquillo, the first American guerilla was educated by a Franciscan in the friary of Santa Maria de Vera Paz, in Port-au-Prince, today’s capital of Haiti. The Province of Santa Cruz, to which the island of Hispaniola belonged, was created at Pentecost in 1505. The Province reached its greatest splendour in the second half of the eighteenth century and disappeared in 1882. In the last 10 years the friars minor began again their mission in Haiti, which is today the poorest country of the Americas, with an area of 27,750 square kilometres and a population of 6,585,000 inhabitants. Over 90% of these are of African origin. 84% of the population is Catholic, but the Voodoo cult is widely practised. The ten years of the Pestel Mission were celebrated on 19 March with the blessing of a new Church. The fraternity, of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Central America), has two Haitian friars in temporary profession. With the assistance of the parishioners, the fraternity has built not only 10 schools, but also a Community Centre for the formation and animation of leaders. There are also base ecclesial communities within the mission and courses of formation in the development and critical awareness of the people. The SFO is flourishing. This mission received the attention of the media in 1994, when two friars and a sister accompanied 2,500 “boat people” to denounce before the world the international community’s inertia in the face of the desperate plight of the country. The mission was begun by the Canadian friar Raymond Mailhiot. From 3 to 5 May the Minister General, friar Giacomo Bini, visited the friars of Haiti together with the General Definitor, friar Gerard Moore.
After years of effort and anxious waiting, 250 people with neither home nor land have been able to legally establish themselves in the “Baronessa” farm in the Araguacema region in the state of Tocantins (Brazil). The settlement took the name of Saint Clare. The families were assisted from the beginning by the friars of Araguacema, friar José Afonso and friar Deusdet. Other parishes of the Holy Name Vice-Province of Brazil collaborated financially during the juridical hearing at the Brazilian Institute of Agrarian Reform and with the Government of the State of Tocantins.
Mons. Roberto Ashta, Bishop of Pult (Albania) died suddenly on 12 April, Easter Sunday, while arriving at the village of Dushan on foot, where he was to have celebrated the second Easter Mass. Born in Scutari in 1918, he entered the Order on 13 July 1934 in the Annunciation Province (Albania). Nominated bishop of Pult in the rugged Albanian Alps, he received Episcopal ordination on 25 April 1993 from John Paul II on the occasion of the Pope’s historical visit to Albania. “I salute you, Mons. Roberto Ashta; the faithful of this land thank you for the sufferings of the difficult years gone by,” said the Pope on the day of his consecration. The Pope was referring to the years (1974-1985) which the communist regime compelled Mons. Ashta to spend in forced labour, constructing hydroelectric dams.
24 Rwandan priests living in Rome gathered on 28 March in the General Curia’s Church to celebrate the Eucharist in memory of friar Vieko Curic, martyred in Rwanda on 31 January, 1998. The Minister General, friar Giacomo Bini, the Definitor General for Africa and the Middle East, friar Peter Williams and other friars of the Curia concelebrated. Rwandan lay people, sisters and former missionaries in Rwanda were also present. The majority of the concelebrants are in exile, and knew friar Vieko well and his immense effort for peace in their country. They prayed together to the Lord for the grace to return to Rwanda as soon as possible as bearers of peace and workers for reconciliation. There are around 50 Rwandan priests living in exile in Rome.
A fraternity of six friars has been set up in Kivumu, the community of the martyred friar Vieko: 5 friars in temporary profession (4 Rwandans and 1 Burundian) who are at the end of their initial formation, and friar Nicodeme Kibuzehose, of Burundi, formator and temporary Parish Priest. The fraternity is a “filial house” of the Butare fraternity for the moment. The Franciscan Family in Rwanda is thinking of fixing an annual day in memory of those who witnessed with their lives to their love for their Rwandan brothers and sisters. On 14 April the superiors of the various Franciscan institutes present in Rwanda met to draw up a common programme for the coming years. At the moment the following are present in Rwanda: Friars Minor, Poor Clares, Penitent Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, the Franciscan Sisters of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Secular Franciscan Order, and the Secular Institute of Christ the King.
In solidarity with other Non-Government Organisations, Franciscans International has written letters to the world’s leaders regarding the following challenges: 1. Global Warming (USA). 2. Anti-personnel mines (USA, Canada, Germany, Belgium, France, Mozambique, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, South Africa, Great Britain and the participants of the Ottawa Treaty). 3. The plight of workers in the Philippines. 4. The solution of the external debt and the Jubilee of 2000 (to all the governments of the wealthy nations). 5. The creation of a disarmament office at the UN. 6. The reduction of military expenditure to the benefit of programmes for health, education and the fight against unemployment.
Franciscans International and the Franciscan Offices of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation support the initiative of 23 Nobel Peace Prize laureates who have written to the Heads of State of the UN asking that the year 2000 be declared “The Year for Education to Non-violence” and that the first decade of the millennium be “The Decade of the Culture of Non-violence”. “Today in every country children suffer the effects and consequences of physical, psychological, socio-economic, environmental and political violence in silence,” wrote the Nobel laureates. “We must build a new culture for humanity--the culture of non-violence--which can give hope to the children.” The provincial offices of JPIC are able to provide further information on the procedures to be followed in this regard.
On Tuesday, 24 March, the vigil of the Annunciation of the Lord, the twinning of the Sanctuary of the Annunciation in Nazareth and the Sanctuary of the Incarnation in Loreto was sealed. The former houses the Holy Grotto, the latter the Holy House, Mary’s earthly dwelling. The solemn ceremony took place at the end of a prayer vigil attended by many of the faithful, particularly by young people. The official act of twinning was signed by the Archbishop Prelate of Loreto, Mons. Angelo Comastri, and by the Custos of the Holy Land, friar Giuseppe Nazzaro. This gesture of communion creates a bond of love between the two sanctuaries of Nazareth and Loreto. Two initiatives were taken up immediately by the Sanctuary of Loreto: a scholarship for a university student of Christian Religion, offered by the Pontifical Delegation and by the Prelature of Loreto; and the construction of a centre in Nazareth for Christian families, supported by the Capuchin fraternity of Loreto.
Friar Barnabas Lafond, of St. Joseph Province (Canada) celebrated 78 years of Franciscan profession on 15 August. The dean of Canada’s priests, born on 9 July 1900 in Ste-Martine (Quebec) will celebrate 72 years of priesthood on 11 July. In the years 1929-1935 he was a missionary in the Chinese region of Tibet, particularly among the lepers, for whom he built a hospital. He was then penitentiary at the Lateran Basilica in Rome for 24 years.
Friar Alberto Campos Hernandez was ordained bishop on 31 May in the Marian Sanctuary of Zapopan, Mexico. On 14 February last, John Paul II nominated him Vicar Apostolic of San José de Amazonas in Peru. Friar Alberto was born in Fresnillo, diocese of Zacatecas (Mexico) on 5 June 1951. He entered the Order in 1970, took solemn vows on 21 April 1979 and was ordained priest on 2 August of the same year. Having conducted his pastoral ministry in the Jesus Mary Prelature in El Nayar (Mexico), from 1979 to 1987, he was master of novices until 1990 and then provincial definitor from 1990 to 1993. From November 1994 he was a missionary in Uganda, firstly in the diocese of Kabale, then as superior of the fraternity in Rushooka, in the diocese of Mbarara. The vicariate of San José de Amazonas, in the north east of Peru, entrusted to the Canadian province of St. Joseph, has an area of 135,000 square kilometres and a population of 89,600 inhabitants. The capital of the zone and seat of the vicariate is Indiana, a rural village of approximately 2,500 inhabitants. The population lives all along the course of the rivers, in a situation of great poverty. The interior of the territory is made up of dense forest, with no roads and no possibility of normal life. The vicariate includes 5 diocesan priests, and 7 religious priests, 3 brothers, 29 female religious and 7 lay missionaries. The greatest difficulty for apostolic work is the huge distances and the unreliability of communications. Travel from one place to the next is possible only by boat. Mons. Alberto will live out his motto in this environment: “The Lord is my shepherd.” He will take up this service with two great worries: promotion of an indigenous clergy and finding missionaries willing to carry out the vicariate’s plans.
The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, OFM, from the pastoral government of the Archdiocese of Sao Paolo (Brazil), presented in conformity with canon 401.1. Mons. Arns was elected auxiliary bishop of S. Paolo on 2 May 1966. He was nominated Archbishop on 1 November 1970 and was made Cardinal on 5 March 1973.
The Holy Father has made the following nominations:
Assisi Cuore del Mondo (Assisi, the Heart of the World) by friar Gualtiero Bellucci, published by Velar/Edizioni Porziuncola, Assisi, 1997, 136 pages. The book carries the subtitle “tourist guide” but it is not simply a guide: it is a work of photographic art, a spiritual journey, a catechesis on the richness of life which is Francis and Clare’s Assisi.
The Minister General’s Commitments
Peace Mission in Colombia
Franciscan Volunteers: service to the poor
Sick and Homeless
OFM in Haiti
Brazil - Peaceful Conquest of the Land
Short news-items
Sudden Death of Mons. Ashta
Rwandan Priests Remember Friar Vieko
Rwanda: A Common Franciscan Programme
Franciscans International
The Culture of Non-violence
Nazareth and Loreto: Twinning
78 Years of Profession
Vicar Apostolic of S. José de Amazonas
Lukumwena: Bishop of Kole
On 21 June friar Stanislas Lukumwena will be ordained bishop of Kole. He was elected by the Holy Father on 14 February last. The episcopal ordination will take place in Kole Cathedral. Friar Stanislas was born in Tshikapa, diocese of Mbujimayi on 24 July 1949. He received his religious formation and finished his priestly studies in the region. He then took a License in Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical Antonianum Athenaeum in Rome. He made final profession the 27 August 1978 and was ordained in Rome on 31 March 1979. Returning to his own country he carried out many tasks, including: regional guardian of Kasai (1983-1985); vicar provincial of Zaire (1985-1988); secretary general of the Association of major religious superiors of Zaire (1988-1994); Director of the Institute of Spirituality for Religious (1989-1994). From 1994 he has been Minister Provincial of St. Benedict the Moor Vice Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. The diocese of Kole, suffragan of Kananga, is situated in the centre of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has an area of 66,000 square kilometres, part forest and part savannah. It has a population of 285,000 people, 80,000 of whom are Catholics. It is subdivided into 10 parishes with pastoral centres and numerous base communities. There are 29 priests: 22 diocesan and 7 religious. 7 brothers and 50 sisters assist in the diocese. There are 28 major seminarians and 440 catechists.
Roman Curia
General Curia
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Created / Updated Thursday, 28 May, 1998
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