Report to the Chapter: the third part of the presentation

Br Giacomo Bini, ofm
Minister general

A) Evangelisation and Mission (nn. 109-122; 146-170)

Evangelisation: going out to others in creative charity

Starting afresh with Francis

If mission expresses the consciousness of being sent forth to all people, beyond all geographic bounds, the term evangelisation shows that we have been conquered by the Good News, by the encounter with a Person that has changed our life and whom we wish to announce to all. Every vocation is also, at the same time, a mission and every mission is evangelising. At its centre there is the Resurrected Lord, who calls, sends into his vineyard and accompanies in a movement of life, in a constant exodus. Inhabited by the Spirit, we become joyful bearers of hope, no matter what the welcome for the messenger. Always on a journey, always meeting people, always at work for the construction of His Kingdom, the presence of which is already felt.

The Franciscan missionary is not tied to or limited to geographic spaces or territories: the entire world is our cloister. It is, therefore, of capital importance not to allow ourselves to be guided only by the preoccupation for erecting monuments to our territorial Entity or to our Franciscan consecrated life. This would not be fidelity to our Gospel project for living. We are called and sent to the world to sow the seeds of life, to spread the seeds of the Kingdom.

1 Faithful to the Gospel and to our forma vitae

The missionary element of itinerant preaching, of gospel witness offered along the highways has almost always distinguished the principal reforms of the Franciscan Family. Our spirituality, at its roots, is a spirituality of encounter, of going out to the other. It does not primarily provide for a quiet waiting, whether cloistered, organisational or a projection, lived in theory within the confines of an office. We should also reflect on and review the many supply services that, although useful to the Church, over absorb our being and activity. They clip the wings of our prophesy, they limit our field of gospel witness, limiting the mission to a closed circle of the few practising people that still attend our houses and churches. Francis opened us up to much different horizons! By simply finding the itinerant dimension, the on the road identity (so actual in the great movements that are being born and are growing on all continents) of our charism will shine once more. We are expected to go to the crowd that is no longer, or not yet, Christian, which is so numerous throughout the world and does not believe in God, in Christ or in His Church. It is our responsibility to help to change the consumerist and self-interested religiosity of so many people into a living and life giving faith in the resurrected Christ. But it is necessary to set out, to begin… It will not be the successes or failures that will give meaning to our missionary sense: the Lord asks us to go out despite the difficulties (cf. Mt 10,16)!

2. The courage to allow ourselves be evangelised

"And the Lord Himself led me among them (the lepers)… And afterwards I delayed a little and left the world" (Test 1-3). If we set out without fear, unarmed and stripped, as the Gospel wants, in order to meet others, then we are being evangelised, our heart changes and, as happened to Francis, it even becomes possible for us to experience the grace of conversion. Then it will be the Lord that will carry out the projects with us: free and liberating projects, projects of life and dedication. Love is always creative, it is afraid of nothing: the missionary path of evangelisation is a sign of trust that has overcome fear and creates in others a new trust in God; it reinforces faith and generates new enthusiasm for living our vocation.

3. Faithful to modern people: the native home of Franciscan evangelisation is the place of break down

The most marginalised people at the time of Francis were the lepers and he placed himself in their midst to serve them. The most feared enemies of the Christian world were the Saracens with whom they were at war: Francis, unarmed, wanted at all costs to meet and dialogue with the Sultan of Egypt. The forest of the brigands of Montecasale, as well as the Episcopal Palace of Assisi, before which the Bishop and the Power were reconciled, were privileged places of action for Francis and so many of his followers down through the centuries.

Even today, each Fraternity, in its own civil and social context, must identify the privileged places of missionary evangelisation: places of marginalisation, of misery, of tensions, of injustice, of oppression, of violence… In these places it is necessary to establish a friendly, empathetic presence, a discrete relationship, silent perhaps, but significant.

Reconciliation and peace are the two most precious and sought after gifts of our world. The search for these gifts should be the priority for every form of Franciscan evangelisation, for an authentic form of mission that does not know continental, racial or national limits or frontiers. The poor, the weak, the marginalised, await our presence and our word. We must unite our forces and free the Friars that are willing to set out. They expect our encouragement and accompaniment. A new missionary wave could be the source of a profound renewal of the Order.

4. The longest and most demanding missionary journey

One place of break down and mission, perhaps a little forgotten, but which urgently awaits pacification and unification, is our heart, our life with God, our very vocation. Where do we think we are going if we are only fleeing from ourselves or from others? How can we announce reconciliation if we are not reconciled with ourselves, with our desires, with our past, with our work and with the Friars with whom we live? How can we speak of pacification if we are incapable of "living" with ourselves?

Unfortunately, there is no lack of missionary vocations marked by internal wounds, or motives of dissatisfaction, or community tensions as well as by that closing in on self in "our" territory that does not always mean greater attention to our neighbours. Often it is primarily an attention to ourselves, to our security, to our privileges… If we do not embark on this "missionary journey" within ourselves, all other journeys, all other evangelising activity, will not bear the expected gospel fruits. We will never be capable of that creative and inventive charity that is proper to the saints. Francis, therefore, commenting on the gospel beatitudes of the pacifists, says: "Those people are truly peacemakers who, regardless of what they suffer in this world, preserve peace of spirit and body out of love of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Adm XV).

5. The missionary methodology that encounters the greatest resistance

The missionary methodology that encounters the greatest resistance is precisely that of the gospel, the going two by two throughout the world, going reconciled in Fraternity. Nobody doubts the capacity of the individual Friars in the different fields of the apostolate, capacities that are certainly appreciated. We all know well the goodness of certain initiatives promoted by individual Friars, which have even outlasted the judgement of the time with regard to their duration; but "fraternal sanctity" is asked of us today, a mission and evangelisation planned and carried out together. It is more difficult, perhaps, to conceive and carry out. It certainly requires the renunciation of our individualism, but it is in harmony with the Gospel, it corresponds more to our vocation and mission, is more significant and understandable to the world in which we live, which is ever more tried by divisions, violence and war.

Suggestions

* Restructuring of the General (and Provincial) Secretariat for missionary Evangelisation (nn. 167-168)
* Interprovincial Fraternities at the service of the Order (n. 166)
* Towards new foundations (n. 162)

B) The service of authority and obedience (nn. 171-186)

"Being received to obedience" (Rb 2,11)

It is not easy to define the role of authority and of obedience today, not only in our society, but also within the consecrated life. The models of the past seem to be no longer practicable to our mentality. Any kind of "claim" of freedom, autonomy and self-determination on the personal level, as well as on the local and provincial levels, creates a climate of suspicion and diffidence towards every form of authority. The positive progress made during recent decades in the increased valuation of the person must not "obscure" or suppress human mediations of authority and obedience. St. Francis brilliantly succeeded in harmonising freedom and obedience to the Church, respect for the individual person and the value of the Fraternity, which carries with it a necessary interdependence. If the first authority is the Holy Spirit, the real Minister General of the Order (cf. 2Cel 183), to enter the Fraternity means "to be received to obedience" (Rb 2,11). The approved Rule begins and ends precisely with an obligation to obedience to human mediations, guarantees of a faithful following of the Lord. For everyone it is a matter of handing oneself over to God and to the Friars in respect of the different roles and services requested.

Called and convoked

"Religious profession expresses the gift of self to God and to the Church — a gift, however, which is lived in the community of a religious family. Religious are not only called to an individual personal vocation. Their call is also a con-vocation — they are called with others, with whom they share their daily life" (Fraternal Life in Community 44). This text of the Church, reinforced by our Rule and General Constitutions, is ever so eloquent and explicit. In recent years we have repeated that the forma vitae is the point of reference for constantly measuring ourselves. I believe that, for an authentic reform of the Order today, an attitude of obedience to whatever the Rule and Constitutions ask of us is sufficient, without seeking excuses of the differences of times, modes, culture, etc. The sense of belonging to our Fraternity is founded on this obedience that Francis saw as a theological virtue. Our vision of the consecrated life is measured by this and from it the consequent practical attitudes of isolation or communion, self-sufficient independence or fraternal relationships, gratuitous availability to others or operative individual choices, etc. are born. Each of the pairs of attitudes depends on the value that we attribute in conscience to fraternity and, therefore, to obedience on the personal, provincial and worldwide levels.

We have spoken a lot about fraternal life and the problem of individualism in recent years. We are, perhaps, tired of hearing it spoken of and yet there emerges, within this insistence, the sense of a lack, of an unrequited desire and often of a wound that is still not healing. Further intellectual clarifications are not necessary: What we need is to begin a journey of conversion that is consistent with the forma vitae we have professed.

The miracle of trust

A ministry or service is expressed in the generosity that asks for nothing in return when it perceives and lives its essence as a gratuitous gift and diakonia of the Spirit. Whoever is called to a determined office is a favoured one, a person chosen without reference to his merits, the object of the love and trust on the part of God. Every ministry entrusted is a call to humble gratitude, in addition to the responsibilities that every office carries with it. The Minister has to accompany in trust each and every brother just as he is (not as he would like him to be!) before the Lord, in following our gospel life project.

* We live together because the Lord has convoked us and we wish to help each other (corresponsibility, subsidiarity) to go towards the Lord, seeking His face and disposed to being sent into the world to give witness to His Word and to build His Kingdom of peace.
* Trust in God becomes mutual trust in respect to the diversity and uniqueness of each brother. We need to strengthen this trust on the local, provincial and universal levels if we want to put order into our relationships and live our Franciscan identity.

A conversion already begun

Accepting the relationship authority/obedience as a "miracle" of grace and trust immediately creates a sense of personal responsibility that matures in dialogue and precisely opposes both sterile authoritarianism and passive subjection.

This progress is being made in the Order. The vision has increased of the Minister as a spiritual animator, as our legislation foresees, rather than as an administrator of structures and of "the always done in this way" to which the individual Friar must adapt. It is clear that a conversion is necessary to enter into this new logic, a Kenosis. It is no longer the time to ask ourselves about the possible advantages to be derived from a role of authority, or about the most profitable economic or structural system for guiding an Entity, or about how to bring the Fraternities of the Province back to "tranquillity" and order. It is necessary, rather, to ask ourselves about the grave responsibility of accompanying each Friar on the road to the Lord, about dedicating ourselves full time to this service and of asking ourselves if we have done all that is possible to adapt the existing structures to the life of the people that come to us.

There are Ministers that pay attention to the formation of the Definitories, Guardians and formators. They take the trouble of personally visiting every Fraternity, animating the life of prayer and fraternity in them and participating in the local Chapters. But there are also others that are too involved in other things and risk being only "pastors of themselves" (Ez 34,2). The situations of crisis, especially when they are not averted to as such, are occasions for the multiplication of discontented, frustrated and individualistic Friars, who seek their own interests above all or leave the Order. In these cases, even an abundant number of new vocations will not save the Fraternity!

Suggestions

* "The Minister General enjoys ordinary authority over each and every friar, as well as over Provinces and Friaries. He exercises it alone or with his Definitory or with the Plenary Council of the Order" (GGCC 175,1). "All the friars owe to the Minister General the highest obedience and respect" (GGCC 7,2). How could the service of obedience "be recovered" in every situation in order to construct together the worldwide Fraternity in a context of trust?
* What kinds of collaboration in the service of authority are possible (nn. 181-185)?

C) Local and worldwide fraternity — revision of structures (nn. 188-205)

Necessary complementarity between the local and worldwide Fraternity

To avoid any kind of possible ambiguity right from the beginning, we must immediately say that no opposition can exist between one and the other Fraternities. Rather should there be a vital correlation and reciprocal dynamism as indispensable conditions for the life and growth of all the members of the same Family. This does not exclude a certain tension that should be faced up to with serenity in order to transform it into a process of communion. A group is destined to die by closing in on itself (and this can happen very easily in times of crisis) just as any institution cannot last without the contribution of all. It is a matter of living our charism in its integrity and broadness in accordance with our inspiration and legislation, strengthening interprovincial and worldwide collaboration. This will be possible if we are animated by a profound trust in the Order itself, in the other Entities and in the individual Friars, respecting the rich diversity in them and also walking together.

I believe it will be impossible to find again the vivacity of the missionary and evangelising spirit that characterised the beginning and the reforms of our history if we do not "set free" the motivated and enthusiastic Friars belonging to each Entity. "Go, for in this last hour the Lesser Brothers have been given to the world" (2Cel 71) rather than to a determined territory! "You, Lesser Brothers, you do not know the will of God and will not allow me to convert the whole world as God wills (LegPer 20 (115)). We are a Fraternity at the service of the Gospel, at the service of the Kingdom, "given to the world", even if we refer to a determined place.

To form ourselves to this perspective, to these spiritual and missionary horizons that embrace the whole world, the complex world of men, means to be faithful to our mission and vocation, without "sacrificing" the Friars to survival, to the structures…

The phenomenon of globalisation that we live now brings lands closer to each other, it allows us to know everything about everything, but not the hearts of men and, paradoxically, relationships have become more difficult. "Let’s go, we have been given to the world!"

Structures and Life

We have the responsibility, during this Chapter, to review the structures that regulate our life, our relationships on the local, provincial, interprovincial and worldwide levels. This review will certainly not resolve all our problems. However, it could become an important help in facing up to our future. We are called on to prepare the Franciscan life of tomorrow, without avoiding the difficulties of the present, by accepting the signs of renewal that prepare the future. We are invited to look at ourselves with a more demanding consciousness and vocational authenticity, more tested: the reduced number of Friars and of presences (that are still diminishing), the world that is changing at a speed and radicality that is ever more surprising… All of this does not permit us to postpone important decisions again.

We cannot recover the lost time and occasions! We must prepare for more mobile and flexible structures that can guarantee a broader and deeper communion in order to be prepared for epic turning points. A true reform or transformation of our consecrated life requires a change of mentality, heart, style of life…

The structures that must be transformed simultaneously are:

a the personal and internal structures of each Friar.

This means looking after a solid human, Christian and Franciscan formation that opens the mind and heart to horizons of new life, taking into account what is essential for our vocation and placing all the rest in this perspective in order to achieve a consistency of life that becomes a gospel annunciation that is meaningful to our contemporaries.

b Organisational and relational structures:

* those that regulate the local fraternity life along the essential and indispensable lines by which we are bound, in honesty and rectitude, to our vocation;
* those that regulate the provincial and worldwide Fraternity life in a spirit of ever greater collaboration;
those that define our role in the Church: a role to be studied deeply and re-invented periodically in order not to reduce ourselves to a mere function of pastoral supply;
* those that express our relationship with the world in its complexity, variety and mobility.

c The external structures:

the external and vital environment of our daily existence, constructions, complex surroundings and our habitat. All of these, inevitably, condition our personal and relational structures.

To conclude: all structures only have meaning in function of a personal and community gospel life; we must be carefully vigilant of this.

Intermediate structures

I think it is important that the Chapter should reflect and decide on the role of the intermediate structures between Province and General Definitory: it would be a decisive element in a significant reform of structures in general. After six years of experience together in the General Definitory we have often noted a gap, something like the lack of a connecting link between the Minister General and the individual Ministers Provincial. How the Conferences can be made the most of in the task of coordination and accompaniment of the individual local Entities should be reflected on seriously.

The Presidents of the Conferences together with the General Definitory could become a very important structure of reference for both the Provinces and the Minister General.

The creation of other provisional and simpler intermediate structures could be thought about. They could facilitate the animation and missionary aspect of the Order. We should not be afraid to experiment with new and occasional structures in such a "mobile" and complex world such as ours, where all that is "definitive" generates anxiety and fear. The important thing is the seriousness of the discernment, the accompaniment, the periodic evaluation on the part of the respective authorities and the faithfulness to our forma vitae.

Conclusion: "from the signs of the times to the time of signs"

"What must I do to possess eternal life?" (Mt 19,16), the rich young man asked Jesus. And the crowd fed during the multiplication of bread equally asked: "What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?" (Jn 6,28). The answers of Jesus are still valid for us even today. To regain freedom (un-do ourselves) from what can impede our path to a radical following; to believe in and totally and primarily adhere to the person of Jesus even beyond the most natural requirements, such as that of eating or drawing water for the Samaritan woman. This ready disposition of "active" and free trust opens us up to the infinite possibilities of God.

"And (Jesus) did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith" (Mt 13,58), the evangelist notes with a certain sadness! How many "miracles" would be possible even today, with and through us, if we would still trust in God, if we would but dare…! The world expects this courage from us; the Friars that believe in the possibility of renewal and are committed to "incarnating" it are many: something new is, therefore, being born…

I would like to conclude by making this wish, with S. Kierkegaard, "If I could wish for something, it would not be for riches or power, but a passion for the possible. I would want only an eye that, eternally young, would shine eternally with the desire to see the possible".

Suggestions

* How can we make the most of and strengthen the structures of the Conferences of Ministers.
* The role and function of the General Curia (nn. 195-196).
* Other suggestions in numbers 204-205.