The General Curia Office for Franciscan International Development has a twofold mandate for the service of the Order: 1) to raise funds, with the authorization of the Minister General, for the immediate needs and current projects of our worldwide fraternity, and 2) to arrange a program of financial support for the Order by supplementing the ordinary income which the General Curia receives from the provinces.

The Office with its international Equipe for consultation and collaboration met at the General Curia from February 27 to March 2, 1998. Beginning with the documents from the General Chapter of 1997 and on the priorities for 1997 to 2003, the Equipe of six studied the financial needs of the Order as presented in various documents and reports and in conversation with several offices of the General Curia. After reflecting on procedures and techniques for development or fund raising, the Equipe presented the General Definitorium with several plans for appeals and collections to increase the income of the Order, and to involve the friars in fraternal solidarity expressed in the sharing of goods and efforts. .

Seeking grants from international foundations and funding agencies has been a significant activity of the Office of Development since its beginning. This approach will continue and must be expanded to meet current financial needs of the Order. A steady flow of income from sources outside the Order necessitates a stable corps of benefactors. To develop this, the Office and the Equipe has begun a program of personal contact and appeals by mail and publicity. The General Definitorium has authorized the Office to create a data bank of benefactors and consequently asks the friars to send names, addresses and information regarding potential benefactors to the Office of Franciscan International Development. Persons so identified will receive information and appeals regarding the Order in general

Support of the Order has its principle source among the people we serve. The General Definitorium accepted the recommendation that, without prejudice to existing programs on the general provincial levels, it is appropriate and useful to conduct a special annual collection in each place where the friars live and serve for the general needs of the entire Order. The Office has been mandated to organize such a collection in two or three countries in 1998 and to increase each year the number of countries where such collections occur. Reviews and journals are another source of contact with potential benefactors. A simple announcement or advertisement in various languages has been prepared to alert readers to our presence and needs and to indicate how they can join in our programs of evangelization and formation.

Friar editors are asked to freely include this appeal in their publications. For further details contact he Office of Franciscan International Development at the General Curia. Friars and interested parties can receive a fact sheet on the general projects and needs of the Order and their cost. Again, they are asked to contact the Office of Franciscan International Development at the General Curia. The same information is available on the Orders home page on Internet: http://www.ofm.org

The members of the Equipe for Development participating in the February meeting include Brothers James Bok (Province of Saint John the Baptist, USA), John Brice, (Vice-Province of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Southern Africa) Karel DeWilde (Province of the Saint Joseph, Belgium), and John Paul Tan (Custody of Singapore and Brunei) together with Brothers Leonard Orec, (Province of the Assumption in Bosnia Hercegovina), Associate Director of the Office, and James Perluzzi, (Province of the Sacred Heart, USA) Director of the Office.

- Br. Nestor Schwerz, Provincial for the Prov. of St. Francis has been elected President of the Brazilian Conference.
- Br. Eduardo Soriano, Minister of the Vice Prov. of San Felipe de Jesus has been elected the new president of the Mexican-Central American Conference.

The Basilica of St. Clare, which has suffered various wounds since the earthquake of September 26, 1998, has been reopened partially under various conditions of security. This reopening has been welcomed as a sign of hope in view of the reconstruction of Assisi and the rest of the region, which has been hit by the quakes. The Holy Thursday Eucharistic Liturgy, presided over by the Minister Provincial of Umbria, Br. Giulio Mancini, was the first celebrated in the Basilica after the September 26. Since Easter, pilgrims have been allowed to enter. Presently only the nave, the chapel of St. George with the Cross of San Damiano, and the crypt which safeguards the body of St. Clare are deemed safe. The main altar and side chapels are not safe. It is hoped that the Protomonastery, which is adjacent to the Basilica, will receive some attention. Presently, of the community of Clares which lived in the Protomonastery only four remain there, while the others are still in a friary belonging to the Friars of Perugia (Monteripido).

The periodical Periodique du Diocèse de Kabgayi (January/February, 1998) has dedicated it 56 pages to the memory of our brother martyred in Rwanda on January 31, Br. Vjeko Curic. The bishop of Kabgayi, Mons. Anastase Mutabazi declared: “It was a spirit of love which animated Br. Vjeko in the realization of his creative works. He did not intend to become a celebrity. He did everything for the glory of God in the poor, the orphans, and the widows. He desired that the poor avoid lamenting and saying: ‘My God, what have you done with me?’ He consoled the afflicted hearts of the widows and of the orphans by helping them to find food. His primary occupation was the needs of the widows and the orphans. Militants have taken him from us, but in compensation, we have won a saint to imitate and to intercede on our behalf”.

In the legend of the Three Companions, we read of St. Francis’ experience in prison and of his ministry to his fellow prisoners. His example continues to inspire many friars, one of which is Br. Fernand Mancel, a member of the Franciscan Community of Ebimpé, Ivory Coast. Br. Fernand has been involved in a ministry to prisoners detained in the prison of Maca, near Abidjan since 1996. A prison originally built to contain 1,500 detainees, now houses 5,200 men, and women. There can be up to 80 people in each cell. Br. Fernand frequently visits the prison to pray with the inmates and to help them with their material needs. As the prisoners in maximum-security wing are not able to attend services in the chapel, a Christian community under the patronage of St. Thérèse de Lisieux has been formed there. Two hundred members meet regularly on Tuesday mornings for prayer and Gospel reflection. Br. Fernand is in fact building on the ministry begun by Br. Jean-François Fertrand when he was a missionary in the Ivory Coast. Br. Jean-François has been confined to a hospital bed for the last twelve years in France. He continues to offer his sufferings on behalf of those detained in prison. Brs Paul-Marie Demarquet in Dapaong and Br. Christian Klee in Mango are two other brothers doing ministry to the imprisoned in Togo.

Mons. José Antonio Peteiro Freire, OFM, Archbishop of Tangiers since 1983, has described the Church in Morocco in the following terms: “Many Christians do not consider our land to be mission territory because an explicit evangelization is not possible. Many young missionaries do not want to come because they prefer to go to countries, which have mission-missions. However, according to the words of Pope John Paul II, our mission consists in being witnesses to the living body of Christ in Morocco. While leaving a home for unwed mothers, run by the sisters of Mother Theresa, a Muslim Moroccan told me: ‘Long life to all of you! Because the Church is the only entity that helps the poor’! Even this is our testimony. We need people who will come and live with us. We do not need people who think they can bring something” There are 28 million inhabitants (99% Muslim) living in a country which covers 458,730 km of territory. Baptized Christians number circa 27,000, mainly French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. There are also 5,000 Jews. After the Arabian conquest, the re-evangelization of Morocco began in 1200 at the hands of five brothers sent directly by St. Francis. These five brothers became the Order’s protomartyrs. Today there are two OFM Custodies and a Foundation in Morocco. These three entities form a Federation with 11 houses, 27 friars (1 bishop, 22 ordained and 4 non-ordained).

The Italian Secular Franciscan Order and the GIFRA (Franciscan Youth Organization) with the scientific contribution of the University of Parma and in collaboration with the Franciscan Center for Culture “Beyond the Cloister” (Naples) have organized a national convention on “Labor and the Social Reality of Southern Italy”. The encounter took place in Naples on May 1-2. It sought to study the problems of marginalization, prejudice, and lack of employment, which characterize southern Italy. They did so with that spirit of solidarity and social hope that comes from the teachings of Francis of Assisi. The convention commited itself to recuperating a social and political dimension, which was made by the Italian Secular Franciscans some years back in union with the Justice and Peace Commission.

At the close of our time together on this wonderful “Mountain of St. Francis” I would like to especially thank the Lord for the grace of having been able to participate in the XV Assembly of UCLAF. This assembly, again, has offered a witness to unity in diversity. These days have given me the chance to discover the marvels that God has worked through you on this continent. We need to draw the courage of continuation from this discovery, and at the same time, we need for each of our entities to commit themselves to collaborating with the Holy Spirit who is truly the principle author, capable of realizing that which seem impossible for us. Along with my thanks to the Lord, I would like to thank you for the testimony of evangelical life, which you have offered me. I think that we are conscious, with our intelligence and with our heart, that our Gospel life needs to be based and rooted in the spirit of contemplation; in the search for God in the signs of the times, the events in our story and the lives of the most poor. Franciscan contemplation consists in giving one’s self to God and the friars, on a daily basis, as we have promised on the day of our profession. This is the secret and the root of our evangelical life, of our evangelization in fraternity, of our collaboration between entities and between the communities of an entity. Imagine the creativity and novelty of life that each brother and each entity would be capable of if only they would say to God and to the Ministers of the brotherhood: “Do with me what you will, today: I am ready”. The lack of itinerancy, of availability, and of “exodus” is at the root of almost all of our difficulties. God, the friars, and the poor expect our availability: “that which you have freely received, freely give”. We ask the Holy Spirit, especially in this year dedicated to Him, to help us on for the road of conversion. Memory will become prophecy if we are capable of living in itinerancy and availability. I conclude with the words of Paul VI: “The Church - I say: the Order - needs a perennial Pentecost. It needs fire in its heart, words on its lips, prophesy in its gaze”.
Fra Giacomo Bini, Guatemala, 25.4.98

Faced with the uncertain relationship between some monasteries of the Conceptionists and some friars of the Franciscan Order, the Ufficio Pro Monialibus of the OFM General Curia with the help of a group of experts has prepared a document. This document studies the ties based on the founding charism of the Order of St. Beatrice da Silva, founded in 1489. The document, finished on February 2, 1998, has been sent to the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life. It has a double aim: 1) to help the Conceptionists “return to the source of every Christian’s life and to the original inspiration of all institutes” and to maintain “proper intentions of their founders as well as their healthy traditions because these constitute the heritage of each institution” (Perfectae Caritatis, 2). 2) to help the Franciscans to welcome and love this great feminine and contemplative family that was founded “to contemplate and celebrate the mystery of Mary in her Immaculate Conception” (Const. 9).

The most recent statistics for the SFO were prepared before the 1996 General Chapter. According to continents: Europe - 195.839; South America - 170.786; North America - 36.353; Asia - 24.451; Africa - 13.908; Oceania - 1.500: Total = 442.837
According to Language areas: Spanish - 165.856; Italian - 126.098; English - 72.616; German - 34.586; Portuguese )including Brasil)- 24.813; French (including French Canada) - 18.868: Totale = 442.837

Br. Gianmaria Polidoro, Francesco di Assisi, Edizioni Porziuncola, S. Maria degli Angeli, 1998, ( 260 pages). Corrected and reduced edition of Francesco uomo cristiano (1981). Without misunderstanding the chronological data and the local placement of the events, this book underlines how the saint of Assisi is the person who has re-proposed to the world the fascinating hypothesis of a life, which is concretely Christian, rediscovering that the world of the evangelical “Beatitudes” can be utilized as the key for resolving the problems which travail and as the fullest realization of a social and joy-filled life. Text in Italian.