Having examined the report presented by the Guardian of Grottaferrata, Fr. Romain Mailleux, on the work done by the "Commission for the Development of Grottaferrata" - appointed by the Minister General to study the goals and development of the College of St.Bonaventure - the General Definitorium made the following decisions:

1. to strengthen the various areas of research and the various offices connected with the College;

2. to restructure the College in three sections: the section dealing with the critical editions of Franciscan texts (Quaracchi); the historical section (Archivium Franciscanum Historicum, Bullarium Franciscanum, Sinica Franciscana); and the section on Franciscan thought (philosophy and theology).

3. To transfer Sinica Franciscana to Grottaferrata;

4. To prepare new statutes for the College; for this purpose a new Commission "ad hoc" has been appointed;

5. To rebuild the old farm workshop, to provide a Center of Welcome, or at least a guesthouse, for cultural meetings, or formation groups, or spiritual gatherings. For this purpose an overall plan will be prepared and sources of funding will be sought.

Family feasts are times for visiting relatives and friends. For this reason, the Vicar General of the Order, Fr. Stephen Ottenbreit, accompanied by Fr. Angelo Stellini, Minister Provincial of Tuscany and Fr. Tecle Vetrali, President of the Order's Commission for Ecumenical Dialogue, went to Istanbul on November 30, 1998, to bring fraternal greetings and the assurance of prayers to the Patriarch of Constantinople, on the occasion of the feast of St. Andrew, the patron of the Patriarchal See. The initiative, intended to be the first of a series, carried all the warmth of informal meetings between old friends. The significant moments were the private meeting with the Patriarch himself, Bartholomew I - who recalled and intends to continue the fraternal relationship established by our former Minister General; the participation in the divine liturgy, which culminated in the sharing of the blessed bread, accompanied by a new personal greeting from the Patriarch; the meeting with the local fraternity of S.Maria Draperis; and the fraternal meal attended by the local Bishop and the representatives of the religious communities present in the city.

The visit provided an occasion for re-examining, and sketching out more concretely, the possibility of having a presence in Istanbul inspired by the priorities of the Order and open to the demands of dialogue, especially with Orthodoxy and Islam. In accord with this general desire, the house of the friars of S.Maria Draperis, in Istanbul, will become the focal point and support for initiatives in dialogue and formation.

The Vicar General, Fr. Stephen Ottenbreit and Definitors General FF. José Rodriguez Carballo and Gerard Moore met at Ciudad Guatemala with the Provincial of Central America, Fr. José Victor Aguilar, the Delegate General for the various OFM entities present in Central America, Fr. Eduardo Soriano, and the Provincials of the provinces with Foundations in the area: Venice, Cartagena, and New York (Immaculate Conception). The meeting was held December 2-5, 1998, with the purpose of continuing the process of integration begun some years ago, inspired by the values and priorities of the Order, and hoping to make further progress in building fraternal communion in Central America. Besides the Provincials, the Definitors of the Central American Province also participated in the meeting, and the Presidents of every Foundation, with their Councillors. The Vicar General and Definitors General also met separately with the President and Council of each Foundation. In the final two days all the friars, including those in formation, were invited to a "Chapter of Mats," so that all were fully informed of the orientations being followed in the process of gradual integration of minds and hearts. A mixed Ongoing Formation Commission will continue the project.

• April 5-8: Fraternal visit to Ireland.
  
• April 12-17: Conference of Ministers Provincial of Brasil, in Agudos (Province of the Immaculate Conception).
  
• April 18-30: Visits to the Province of St.Francis (Porto Alegre, Brasil), the Custody of the Sacred Heart (Garça) and the Vice-Province of the Seven Joys (Campo Grande).

• The inter-provincial novitiate of the Spanish Conference was opened on September 17, 1998, with eleven novices. It is located in the friary of the Holy Spirit "del Monte" Gilet, Valencia.
• Fr. Fidelis Mwesigye made solemn vows on December 6, 1998, in Kasekuro, a village in Uganda. Born in 1959, Fidelis is the first man from Uganda to make profession in the Order. For this reason many friars attended the ceremony, coming from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and, of course, Uganda.
• The first three novices of the OFM mission in Angola began their novitiate on January 20 in Rodeio, Brazil. The mission began in 1990, founded by the Province of the Immaculate Conception, Brazil.
• In a letter to the Guardian of Grottaferrata, Fr. Romain Mailleux, the General Definitorium stressed the necessity of a close collaboration between the College of St. Bonaventure and the Scotist Commission, the faculties of philosophy and theology in the Pontifical Athenaeum Antonianum, and especially with the Higher School of Medieval and Franciscan Studies, and the Institute of Spirituality in the Antonianum. The letter also stressed the importance of opening the College to lay collaborators and to other outside centers which work in allied fields.
• The "Zecchino d'Oro" (Golden Sequin) gathers and presents songs for children. It began in Milan in 1959, but has been organized in Bologna, by the Antonianum, since its third edition. Its objective is to promote the production of songs for children. Since 1976 it has become an international phenomenon. Fr. Berard Rossi has written Lo Zecchino d'Oro, una storia di 40 anni (The Golden Sequin, a history of 40 years). It is a beautiful story of 656 pages, filled with hundreds of photos in colour.
• Fr. Hector Fabio Rojas, vocations promoter in the Province of Ecuador, was killed on January 23, 1999, during an attack on a bus at Guayaquil, while he tried to pacify a woman and her children.

Again this year the German Provinces offer to the friars of the Order, at no cost, intensive courses in the German language, in Germany. From July 1 to August 15, 1999, friars may study the German language in certain friaries chosen for the beauty of their surroundings or because they are of special cultural interest. The friars will live in the friaries and the courses will be held there. The courses will be organized on the basis of the students' knowledge of German. Applications should be sent, before May 1, 1999, to: Fr. Franz Gruber, St.Anna-Strasse 19

D-80538 München. Fax: +49.89.21126161.

The Vicar General, Fr. Stephen Ottenbreit, represented the OFM Franciscans at the Mass in honour of the first centenary of the Congregation of the Franciscans of the Atonement, held in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Via Monte del Gallo, Rome. At first a Franciscan group in the Episcopalian Church, USA, the whole group converted to the Catholic Church in 1909, and continued its important ecumenical mission of unity and reconciliation. It was their founder, Fr. Paul Wattson, who instituted the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated throughout the world every year in January and in the week between the Ascension and Pentecost. Today the Friars of the Atonement are present,apart from the USA, in Italy, Japan, England and Brazil.

• Fr. Pierdamiano Rinaudo ex-Economo Generale, and outgoing Economo of Collegio S.Antonio, has returned to his Province in Turin.
• Fr. Salvador Rangel M. of the Province of SS.Peter and Paul, Mexico, is the new Economo in Collegio S.Antonio.
• Fr. Andrès López of the Province of the Assumption, Argentina, is the new gardener in the General.

The Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Giovanni Battistelli, has written a letter to the friars in the Holy Land, referring to the Bull declaring the Great Jubilee of 2000, Incarnationis Mysterium, and especially the phrase: "It will be an event which will be celebrated at the same time in Rome and in all the particular Churches spread throughout the world, and which will have, as it were, two centres: on the one hand the City where Providence has wished to place the seat of the Successor of Peter, and the other the Holy Land, in which the Son of God was born as a man, taking our flesh from a Virgin named Mary. The Jubilee will be celebrated, therefore, with equal dignity and importance, not only in Rome, but also in the Land justifiably called "Holy" because it witnessed the birth and death of Jesus." Having indicated the three sanctuaries in the Holy Land where the Jubilee Indulgence can be gained (Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem; the Nativity, Bethlehem; the Incarnation, Nazareth), the Custos speaks of the importance of the personal preparation of the friars for receiving the pilgrims, and he lays down some norms "so that everything will be done with maximum order, to bring about the serenity and joy of the grace of the Jubilee." The Custos has directed that prayers be said for the Jubilee pilgrims every day, in all the sanctuaries and houses of the Custody. He has also directed that the Rectors of the Sanctuaries should not accept particular bookings for 2000, but should refer all agencies and companies, foreign and domestic, to the Central Direction in Jerusalem. - fax: +972.2.6286417 - eMail: cic_cts@netmedia.net.il

The four Ministers General, at their meeting of December 23, 1998, decided to publish the study carried out by an interfranciscan commission, appointed by the Ministers General in 1997. The purpose of this study was "to clarify the identity of the Franciscan Order in the moment of its foundation, in what might be considered the wish or intention of Francis." The members of the Commission were: FF. Andrea Boni and Nikolaus Schöch for the OFMs; FF.Giovanni Iammarrone and Piotr Anzulewicz for the OFMConv.; and FF. Francisco Iglesias and Giampiero Gambaro for the OFMCaps. The text, presented to the Ministers in November 1998, is being translated into eight languages at present, and will be distributed to the Provinces and Conferences.

During their meeting of December 23, 1998, the four Minister Generals of the First Order and the Third Order Regular examined the new Roman-Seraphic Ritual for Religious Profession, prepared by the inter-obediential Commission appointed in 1995. Having given it positive approval, the Generals decided to submit the Ritual to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for its approval. This new Ritual will replace the one in use since 1979, including as it does the new formula for profession approved last year.

The Commission came together in Rome, for the first time, January 7-9, 1999, and began its task. Having studied in depth the directives given it by the General Definitorium and after a meeting with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, consideration was given as to how to reach the individual friars, in their houses and in their provinces. As a starting point, each member of the Commission will make contact with his Conference, either by correspondence or by personal contacts. To commence with something concrete, each Conference will be asked to put together a chart, or document, on which it will indicate some of the essential aspects of ecumenism in its region. Nine proposals for action were presented to the Definitorium for approval. These include proposals for the setting up of structures analogous to "Service for Dialogue" in the different entities of the Order, proposals regarding information and formation in ecumenism, collaboration with the Minister General and General Definitorium and with the Conferences, interfranciscan collaboration in the area of dialogue, and other issues of a more particular character.

"The first meeting of the General Definitorium with Provincial Ministers elected after the General Chapter" was held in the General Curia, Rome, January 21-23, 1999. There were 31 Ministers Provincial present, from all over the world, convened by the General Definitorium to put into effect a "sharing of animation" within the universal fraternity. In his introductory address, Fr. Giacomo stressed the "significance" of the authority of the Ministers, and on "how" this should be exercised. It is a "gift," a "service," to be exercised in "co-responsibility" and seeking communion, having a "maternal" attitude, and recognizing that the Minister is the "guardian of the goal, he who points out to all where they must go."

The meeting also studied the human-affective growth of the friar minor. In this context, Fr. Massimo Reschiglian, a specialist in spirituality and psychology in the Pontifical Gregorian University, and Dr. Luciana Netti, psychologist, were invited to participate.

On the final day some of the Provincials shared the experience of animation: Fr. Wolfgang Heiss recounted, very absorbingly, fraternal accompaniment in the Province of Innsbruck; Fr. Scaria Varanath, of India, proposed some approaches to spiritual animation, and Fr. Mario Rafael Toro Puerta, of the Province of Popayan (Colombia) spoke of insertion, as a form of dialogue between the province and the world.

In conclusion, the Minister General "invited" the Provincials to "open and widen the tent of our fraternity," choosing different ways of sharing in the exercise of responsibility, and increasing the commitment to collaboration between provinces, especially in formation, initial and ongoing.

Concordancias de Santa Clara de Asís, Fr. Leonardo García Aragón, ofm, Iglesia de la Recolección, 3a Ave. 2-24, zona 1, Guatemala, 1998, 386 pp. The author has already published "Concordancias Franciscanas"(1976, 1074pp.) This new precious work brings together the Rule, the Testament, the Blessings, the four letters of Agnes of Prague, and the letter to Ermentrude of Bruges. 916 themes and 3504 references help the quick finding of texts. The text itself is in Spanish

In September 1997, the Provincial Chapter of the Province of the Immaculate Conception, Brazil, chose the following priorities for this triennium:

1. prayer and contemplation;
2. gospel life and the franciscan charism;
3. dialogue;
4. the local chapter;
5. the planning of pastoral work by the fraternity.

When the document "The Priorities of the Order" arrived, in February 1998, the Minister Provincial, besides giving every friar a copy of it, wrote four letters to the friars, drawing their attention to the priorities of the Order, and inviting each one to check his way of life and his work against these priorities.

At the end of March 1998 a large part of a meeting of Guardians was devoted to the priorities. The Provincial Definitorium decided to make a fraternal-contemplative experience in the provincial hermitage "Blessed Giles," for a week of reflection and prayer about the priorities. During this time, the Definitors decided that there was a need for a new project of fraternal life in the Province, based upon the priorities, and they mandated the Director of Ongoing Formation to prepare a document on this. The year 1999 will be dedicated to living the new "Fraternal Life Project," involving the Provincial Administration, the Regional co-ordinators, the Guardians and all the friars. In the letter to the friars (December 98) the Minister Provincial, Fr. Caetano Ferrari, underlined that "the search for quality of life calls for a planned commitment," and he called upon all the friars to attend the meetings organized by the Director of Ongoing Formation. Meanwhile, the friars have replied to a questionnaire on how they live the priorities today, and how they ought to be lived.

At the end of January 1999, the Definitory studied the replies and prepared concrete proposals for the Ongoing Formation meetings. From this new project of fraternal life will follow the Provincial Project of Evangelization, due in the Provincial Chapter of 2000.



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Friendship becomes a commitment

The Metropolitan Jovan, leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Malta, was very anxious to visit the Franciscans, in return for the visit made by our former Minister General, Hermann Schalück, to the Orthodox Patriarch of Belgrade in March 1997. Following up this former friendly contact with the Franciscans, he attended the celebrations in honour of St.John Capistran, on October 23, 1998, and presented a gift of an icon of the Saint, painted in Belgrade. As a sign of friendship and unity, the icon shows, around the image of the Saint, the faces of the friars of Capistrano and of the Serbian Orthodox community of Trieste, the city where the Metropolitan normally resides. Fr. Antonio Riccio, Procurator and General Definitor, represented the Order at this function. The meeting had special significance because it led to a mutual commitment to a fraternal and ecumenical relationship between Franciscans and Orthodox in the work of evangelization. The text reads: "In the spirit of St.Francis and of the orientations given in our General Constitutions, participating in the commitment to ecumenical dialogue of the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Council of the Churches, the Friars Minor, in a spirit of friendship with the Orthodox Church, commit themselves:

1) to be a presence and a gospel witness that is peaceful and peace-making, particularly in those countries where they are in contact with other christian and religious communities, promoting mutual respect, dialogue, friendship and ecumencial collaboration, especially in teaching, in preaching, in catechesis and in the use of the means of communication;

2) to enlighten the faithful so that they know the doctrine and the traditions of their own and of the other Churches, remembering that every division is the fruit of sin;

3) to avoid every expression, written, spoken, or in one's demeanour, which might possibly offend other people, or distort the truth of facts or the rightness of intentions."



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Franciscan Institute of South Africa

The Franciscan Institute of South Africa was founded in September 1994 by Sr. Madge Kerecki, ssj-tosf, and Fr. Sergius Wroblewski ofm, at the request of Fr. Robert Stewart, Minister Provincial of the Vice-Province of Our Lady Queen of Peace.

The objective of the Institute is to provide a professional formation based on the writings of Francis and Clare and the other Franciscan sources. Courses, workshops, days of retreat and study are organized to help the Franciscans to know our charism better. The Institute publishes a newsletter every two months, called "The Little Portion", and also a series of study-guides intended to help individuals and groups. The 1997 series was dedicated to "The Life and Times of Francis and Clare", the 1998 series to "The Writings of Francis". This year the concentration will be on "The Writings of Clare". For further information on these publications, write to: Franciscan Institute, P.O.Box 33045, Jeppestown 2043, South Africa.



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Peru - The search for communion

There are two provinces, two custodies and one foundation in Peru. For some years now there have been efforts at collaboration, in formation and in other projects. During December 7-12, 1998, the Vicar General, Fr. Stephen Ottenbreit and Definitor General Fr.Gerard Moore, met in Lima with the Provincials and Custodes in order to encourage communion, inspired by the priorities of the Order. The entities already share the philosophico-theological Institute "Juan Landazuri" in Lima, and they are open to collaboration in ongoing formation and in the possibility of a common novitiate. During the meeting a mixed commission was established to develop a positive mentality regarding collaboration and to organize common projects. The Vicar and General Definitor also visited the other houses of formation of the OFM entities.



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Guinea Bissau
Death of Mons.Ferrazzetta, builder of peace

Mons. Settimio Ferrazzetta, ofm, died suddenly of heart failure on the morning of January 27, 1999. Mons. Ferrazzetta became well-known around the world in 1998 because of his energetic commitment to peace in Guinea-Bissau. The majority of observers, national and international, acknowledge that the peace agreement between President João Bernardo Vieira and the head of the Guinean military junta, General Ansumane Mané, signed at Abuja (Nigeria), was only possible because of the commitment and determination of Mons. Ferrazzetta.

Born at Selva di Progno, Verona, on December 8, 1924, he was clothed the Franciscan habit at 19 years of age, and made solemn vows on June 29, 1948. He was ordained a priest on July 1, 1951. In 1955 the Venetian Province accepted the invitation to provide a leprosarium in Cumura, near the capital of Guinea-Bissau. Fr. Settimio, superior, Fr. Giuseppe Andreatta and Fr. Epifanio Cardin were the founders of the leprosarium at Cumura and of the new christian community of the area, about 12 km. from the capital, Bissau. The latter two men had worked for many years in a leprosarium in Tibet, until they were expelled by Mao. Under the guidance of Fr. Settimio, the Cumura Mission had a rapid development. The chapel of the leprosarium was quickly built, then the fine Church of the Cumura Mission, the house for the missionaries and lay volunteers, a school of carpentry and a workshop, two new pavilions, homes for lepers and their children, two maternity clinics, and a small seminary for franciscan vocations at Brà. Notable concerns were schools for catechesis, and primary and secondary schools. Also to Mons. Ferrazzetta's credit, helped by his confreres, is the Village for ex-lepers, which has 100 comfortable and functional houses.

Guinea-Bissau became independent in 1974. Pope Paul VI erected the first diocese there in May 1977, and Fr. Settimio was ordained its first Bishop on June 17 in that year. He was a simple man, who loved to dialogue with everyone, a tireless worker for peace, a friend of everyone, an admirable "good samaritan" towards the sufferings of the people placed in his care. When he heard of the death of Mons. Ferrazzetta, the Minister General wrote a letter to the Venetian Province and to the friars who work in Guinea-Bissau.

Among other things, he said: "The Lord, in him, gave us a great gift, he gave us a friar minor close to the heart of Francis, always attentive to gather the signs of the presence of the Spirit, and ready to give his life for the good of his brothers and sisters."



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