The Minister General visits the Province of the Immaculate in Madagascar and Mauritius

From 27 August to 2 September, the Minister General Br. Massimo Fusarelli, OFM, accompanied by the Definitor General Br. Siphelele Paulus Gwanisheni, OFM, visited the Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which comprises Madagascar and the islands of Mauritius. The visit included meetings with the Provincial Definitory, project leaders, houses of formation — formators and candidates together — and several pastoral realities. Meetings were also held with Franciscan lay people, two monasteries of Poor Clares and Franciscan sisters, in particular the FMM and the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate of Palagano, who actively collaborate with the friars of the mission.

The Franciscan presence on this island began in 1959, with the arrival of the first friars from the former Province of Lyon. They worked in missionary evangelisation; the first Malagasy vocations came only about twenty years later. Today the Province has 51 solemnly professed friars, 43 friars in temporary vows, seven novices beginning their time of probation and at least 14 postulants, as well as numerous aspirants. On 7 September, nine friars will make their solemn profession and two their temporary profession.

In his meetings with the friars, the Minister General called for a deeper understanding of Franciscan identity within the Malagasy context, moving beyond the tendency to focus primarily on priestly ministry. He identified formation and an increasingly missionary evangelisation, directed above all towards the poorest, as priorities, and stressed the need for a quality fraternal life shaped by prayer and sharing, especially in order to support the vocation of the younger friars. The reflection also focused on the path the Province is already taking towards economic self-sustainability, through projects in which the friars themselves work to generate what is needed for their daily support.

The simplicity and joy of faith and community life touched the brothers who came on the visit and inspire hope for the future of this young Entity and for the rich Franciscan presence on a large island situated between Africa and Asia. A crossroads of cultures, marked by political instability, serious social injustices and widespread, deep poverty, and at the same time by the desire — especially among young people — for development and a better future.