THE FIRST AND THIRD FRANCISCAN ORDERS IN MISSION TOGETHER?

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY CONGRESS OFM Conv Cochin, India January 12 22, 2006 GALIMBERTI, ROSA THE FIRST AND THIRD FRANCISCAN ORDERS IN MISSION TOGETHER? A Contribution from the Italian Secular Franciscan Order

2 GALIMBERTI Rosa Foreword THE FIRST AND THIRD FRANCISCAN ORDERS IN MISSION TOGETHER? A Contribution from the Italian Secular Franciscan Order Translation by Daniel Pietrzak The fact that lay persons, even if married and with children, could leave for the mission is not a novelty even if, within our Secular Order, it is a recent discovery. In fact, the fundamental principles for the mission of the laity have their roots at the very beginnings of Christianity. If we read the Acts of the Apostles, we understand that, at the beginning of the Church, the mission " ad gentes" was considered the normal outreach of the Christian life. Each believer was committed to this mission, some through the personal testimony; others through actual proclamation. But the Church history, through the centuries, witnessed a certain division both conceptual and practical, according to which the apostolate became the responsibility of the clergy while the world remained in the hands of the laity, thus confining the laity to a marginal role in the area of evangelisation and relegating to religious men and women and to the clergy the major role in evangelising peoples. The activity of the laity, therefore, has been limited, in almost all Christian communities, to external support and to forms of cooperation that with time were crystallized and concretised almost exclusively in initiatives of prayer ( more individual than communal), in activities of funds raising, adoptions abroad and supplying materials needed by the missionaries and little more. But the Pope Joan Paul II, in his Apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici of 1988, reminded us that the work of the faithful laity is becoming today more and more necessary ( n. 35 )." The call is a concern not only for Pastors, clergy, and religious men and women. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world " The Episcopal Italian Conference (CEI), after the Second Vatican Council and with the Pope s encouragement, published in 1990, the " Pastoral Notes on the commitment of the faithful laity to mission ad gentes which is very significant and stimulating since it speaks clearly about new ways of participation...and about the creation of an organization of missionary laity... and about the precious contribution of the Christian women and Christian couples through the ministries and services of evangelization and ecclesial growth (29). In the 1991, the Encyclical " Redemptoris Missio" laid the foundation for the further reflection of the community. 1. The Franciscan Family We, as Franciscans, have a powerful means of influence in all walks of life within the Church : the Fraternity. The Community of the full Franciscan Family, formed by religious and lay, priests and consecrated women, is called to incarnate, in the Church of today the apostolic charisma of our common Seraphic Father who made himself the universal brother and sent his friars into the world, 2

3 leaving behind as his heritage a missionary way and praxis which is still valid today, in its principles and in its methods of operation. In this family all of us: brothers of the First Order, religious sisters, lay faithful, are called to evangelisation in the light of the teachings of Vatican II. A mission of unity and fraternity where each member adds his/her own specificity, in terms of human, spiritual and material resources. The Secular Franciscan Order In the last ten years within the Italian Secular Franciscan Order, these fundamental principles and reflections have been the object of deep interest, study and discernment. Surely a big influence has been the Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio of John Paul II which in paragraph 42 states : "People today put more trust in witnesses than in teachers, in experience than in teaching, and in life and action than in theories... The first form of witness is the very life of the missionary, of the Christian family, and of the ecclesial community, which reveal a new way of living. The missionary who, despite all his or her human limitations and defects, lives a simple life, taking Christ as the model, is a sign of God and of transcendent realities" If it is true that all the faithful laity, by virtue of the Baptism they received, have a sacerdotal, regal and prophetic dignity, and the right/duty to participate in the mission of the Church, we, in addition to our baptismal consecration, the profession of the evangelical life that binds us even more to the service to our brothers and sisters. We are therefore called to missionary action according to the style that is peculiar to the Secular Franciscans. In our rule there are several reminders of this commitment: to make present the charism of their common Seraphic Father in the life and mission of the Church (Rule 1) because buried and raised with Christ in Baptism: they have been united more intimately with the Church by profession. Therefore they should go forth as witnesses and instruments of her mission among all people, proclaiming Christ by their life and words.(rule 6 ). The call to mission is even more urgent for us today, because there is an increasing number of places where people cannot listen to the Gospel and come to know Jesus Christ unless through lay persons who share with them their existential condition. This reflection within our Order, brought us to give birth, in 1998, to the experience of the Centro Missionario dell'ofs ( SFO Missionary Center or CEMIOFS ) to enable us to make a more concrete commitment in this field. We later tried to define some fundamental topics in a document that, in the past, moved the Fraternities to reflect more deeply on these issues. Extract from the missionary document of Italian SFO " Witnesses and Instruments" 1. The missionary call that is extended to all, involves also the Secular Franciscans who receive from Lord the mandate go you also to my vineyard.. and the commitment to make present the charisma of their common Seraphic Father in the life and mission of the Church at the service of the unique mission of bringing Christ to the whole world and to all creatures and as concrete sign of cooperation in the building up of the Church as the sacrament of salvation for all.. 2. The Secular Franciscans became, through their baptism and profession, witnesses and instruments of the mission of the Church, and thus have the general obligation and the right 3

4 FOUNDING to commit themselves so that the proclamation of salvation is known and acknowledged by all men and women in every part of the world and also to proclaim Christ by their life and word by promoting initiatives...by collaborating in spreading the Gospel, removing the causes of marginalization and serving the cause of peace. 3. The CEMIOFS was founded on the 20 th of September 1998 (see Foundation Decree ). All responsibilities for CEMIOFS in general and for all aspects related to the missionary commitment "ad gentes" belong to the SFO National Council and to his/her National Minister, as the first responsible, who will work through responsible persons nominated according to the CEMIOFS regulations NATURE 4. The CEMIOFS is the place of communion where the formational and the experiential paths, common to the several regional and local missionary realities, are developed and shared, for a renewed commitment to evangelization in the Italian SFO Fraternity. 5. The CEMIOFS is, according to the directives suggested by the National Office for the Missionary cooperation among the Churches, a "special place" that allows the Franciscan laity who want to respond to the missionary vocation to have concrete, vital and significant experiences of specific formation for animators and missionary co-operators. In addition, for the Franciscan Missionary Lay candidates, it is the institutional and unitary place of the National SFO where they can follow the specific path of missionary formation and education which is set at an intermediate level between the regional reality of belonging (the one who sends") and the Unitary Missionary Center ( CUM in Verona), required to carry out the specialized formation for missionaries who are soon to leave. PURPOSE 6. The CEMIOFS is a service of the National SFO with its focus on missionary animation, the promotion of the missionary cooperation, the International Voluntary Service and the Franciscan Missionary Laity, with regard to evangelisation and cooperation among the Churches. Other approaches to missionary commitment are promoted also in cooperation with all other Franciscan Family members. All Franciscans accomplish their life giving union with each other in a open dialogue of apostolic effectiveness and creativity. 2. The CEMIOFS Experience Specific CEMIOFS tasks are : - To promote and coordinate activities of missionary animation and cooperation within the regions, in cooperation with other members of the Franciscan Family, in particular with the First Order missions; - To promote and organize experiences of Voluntary service abroad (summer camps.. twinning ); - To offer to candidates among the Secular Franciscans the chance to be sent on mission abroad - individuals or families with a formation program and technical and 4

5 organizational support for projects of missionary service "ad gentes" before, during and after their return from the mission - To promote ways of sharing information and initiatives concerned with a cultural openness to global issues which relate to human development, to peace, to environment protection and to the development of peoples, through fraternal efforts according to the Franciscan principles of sobriety and the safeguarding of Creation able to be transformed into concrete initiatives for a renewed style of Franciscan life. Departments - For each of these main tasks, the CEMIOFS operates with FOUR working groups or departments : Animation/Cooperation, Voluntary service, Lay Mission, JPIC. The CEMIOFS has a central and organizational structure, a National Coordinator and a Team of those in charge, and has a peripheral organizational structure as well with committed representatives or small regional teams. The operational central headquarters are presently located in Tuscany, not far from Florence The Team - The SFO National Council appoints a member (Delegate) with the task of coordinating all CEMIOFS activities. The delegate is supported by an animation team, chosen or confirmed yearly by the members of the Assembly of regional missionary delegates. The team is composed by the delegates or regional animators who have distinguished themselves by their local commitment to one or another of the several sectors: animation, voluntary service or lay mission, JPIC and formation. The Team members are joined by the SFO National Spiritual Assistant and the SFO National Councillor specifically designated for this assignment. CEMIOFS through its animators tries to become more sensitive and to coordinate several initiatives developed in the different regions and fraternities, to amalgamate them into a unique vision and to link them in a relationship of shared co-responsibility about the goals and objectives so that the SFO missionary commitment can take shape and be visible; otherwise they become fragmented and broken up in thousands of small initiatives of the local fraternities supporting individual friars. 3. The Missions and the typology of the presence The Formational path: A clarification : It is necessary to start first with a distinction between the Volunteers who stay in the country of mission for a short period of time ( one month, a summer workshop...) and the lay missioners who take a steeper path and stay in a mission for a minimum period of 2-3 years The voluntary service is the fruit of generosity, of openness, of goodwill and is the fertile soil in which one sows, grows and harvests what is to become later the mature fruit of a specific vocation. The lay missionary in his/her response of evangelisation expresses a specific call from Lord Since the CEMIOFS is involved with the missionary cooperation too, i.e., with all activities of support to cooperate with missionaries, even those who stay home as "volunteers" express a more traditional commitment that is the one of the support activities. For all there are organised set formational meetings. In particular for the Lay Missionary the program proposed by the CEI ( Episcopal Italian Conference ) has been adopted. Formation meetings are promoted according to the proposal of the 5

6 pastoral note of the Episcopal Commission for cooperation among the Churches : The Lay in the Mission ad gentes. The program begins with the concept of cooperation among the Churches, carrying on mutual exchange and pastoral integration. Fundamental to the program is the relationship with the dioceses, the commitment and the ecclesial sense for the benefit of both the community who sends and the community who receives. The agreement with the CEI is signed when the departure date of the lay missionaries is set. Plans for projects developed under this procedure are opened with a official request from the Bishop of the diocese in need of the project and with the confirmation of the Bishop of the diocese (which sends ) to which the lay volunteers belong.. This procedure is necessary to ensure a proper relationship and the ecclesial warranty regarding the service, even when the work is done as the activity of a religious family. The Secular Franciscan Order also carries out an internal arrangement of support and "twinning" in order to sustain the SFO realities already present on the territory and promote the Franciscan lay vocation. When their specific vocation becomes clear for a volunteer or for a couple or for a family, after a sufficient discernment and some general formation lasting at least one year, the phase of a more focused formation begins : - The completion of the formation to Order membership, in case the volunteer is not a Professed member - Some Professional competence - A relationship with the Diocese to which the candidate(s) belong because the event is a sign of participation and of ecclesial membership - The approval of a Project, approved by the SFO National Council, agreed to by the body in charge ( Missionary Secretariats of first Order or other organizations) with regard to the purpose, the objectives, the form of participation and the mutual co-responsibilities expected for cooperation and maintenance - Grassroots involvement of the Fraternity to which the candidate belongs. - The formation path consists of two steps: one year of formation and preparation prior to departure, in relationship with the appropriate Mission secretariat overseeing the project, and then, at the end of the first year, the attendance at the CUM course in Verona, which lasts two months, and the study of the language of the designated country - A general plan, related to the project, to ensure the relationship and ecclesial service, in communion with the Franciscan family and the local Community members; some form of testimony and service to the society, with particular attention to the poor and the most vulnerable of that area. - A program for the return Orientation for the presence in mission - nourish the daily life of the person, or couple, or family, properly alternating times (rhythms) or moments of prayer, listening to God s word ( personally and in community ) caring for personal relationships within the group and for social integration. To accomplish this, it is necessary to draw up, right from the beginning of the insertion, a true and specific life -plan with the support of a Spiritual Assistant delegated for this task. 6

7 - reserve the first months of the stay for enculturation. It is necessary and fundamental to dedicate a proper period of time ( between four to six months from arrival) with a attitude of listening, to learning about the country, the people hosting and their culture, the society, without involvement in any activity or without a direct responsibility for them. - give priority not to the things to do but to the relationships both of friendship and of dialogue, with suitable time for sharing in the life of the persons with whom they requested to live - operate out of a preferential option for the poor which is not only a life-choice but also a true and actual choice of faith, which will become concretised by the choice of a sober style of presence and management of the missionary activities oriented to solidarity and to sharing with the poor and the most vulnerable. - develop forms of missionary cooperation with co-responsibility with the Franciscan Family members and with the Diocese which hosts the volunteer, in a relationship of autonomy and life-giving union, according to the SFO Rule and General Constitutions. The Lay Franciscan considers as inseparable human development and evangelisation that, according to St. Francis of Assisi teaching, will be translated into service to the brothers and sisters. - see to it that the life-style is in line with the common condition of the people i.e. based on his/her own work to prevent the locals considering the Lay Missionaries in some way "privileged persons" supported by wealthy benefactors. Present situation At present we are running : - Collaboration in Venezuela with the Conventual Friars Custody, in the diocese of Guanare, with the commitment of a couple who went there on 2003 and is returning home these days with a pastoral project aimed to revivify the community surrounding the Franciscan Chapel of St. Anthony within the Barrio la Importancia. It is planned to become a parish in one of the most difficult neighbourhoods of the town with particular attention to boys and girls living in the streets. At the moment some initial pastoral and social objectives have been accomplished and this project will be continued with the arrival of another family, already in formation, planned for this coming August, - Collaboration in Rumania with the delegation of the Province Capuchins friars of Campania in Onesti, in the Jasi diocese, with the commitment of one family who went there on August 2005 to develop a project of pastoral and social support for the parish. This project will last three years and is focused to the development of an Ecumenical Centre for social and cultural gatherings. - A program, at the moment still temporary and occasional, in the North West of the Cameroon with the Province of Capuchins friars of Lombardia in the territory of Shisong on behalf of the local hospital which is near the parish and of some social initiatives promoted by the friars - A Family is in formation, and is at the moment carrying out its specific vocational discernment. - There is the possibility of organizing summer working camps in Albania, in the Sapa ( Lac Vau, Deies - Schoder ) diocese. 7

8 4. Perspectives " Conventual Friars and CEMIOFS : in mission together?!" This could be a proposal and an invitation for us to reflect, be formed and walk together in pastoral service, in a way now opening up before us, in accord with that necessary apostolic creativity the Church may be is asking of us. It is necessarily a walk that we have to do together, urging each other to experiment and elaborating new forms of participation and reciprocal co-responsibility. It is a new and open chapter in our history as we start to develop a new and creative perspective that, in part, has still to be invented, and that has to be started with little prudent, well founded and tested steps. The form for being a missionary, for a lay person, may also be a wife with children, obviously, cannot be the same as the one suitable or valid for a religious. What is needed is to find a identity of style, expression and function that still needs to be investigated but that cannot be done only keeping in mind the professional role of secular international cooperation. The call and the proclamation commits us to a transcendence whose goal is to build the Church, therefore to a sharing objectives, finalities, pastoral and formative projects. If we could be believers, witnesses of the Risen Jesus and of His hope, and peace and fraternity, working JOINTLY, then we will be able to extend and realize the Franciscan Message in a reciprocal integration to project, in the future, the continuity of our charism of Communion with and for all his Creatures Rosa Galimberti, SFO Italian National Minister 8