On March 2-4, 2018, the team preparing the upcoming International Youth towards Assisi Meeting had their third organizing conference. The conference took place at the St. Anthony of Padua friary in Brussels, Belgium. The International Meeting is scheduled for August 12-19, 2018, in Assisi and Rome.

The International Youth Toward Assisi Meeting will bring together young people from our fraternities around the world. The theme of this year’s International Meeting is: “Made to Shine: the Beauty of Holiness.”
All of the organizing team members were present: Friars Giulio CESAREO, Francesco SCIALPI, Massimiliano VOLANTE, Jack MARDESIC, Miljenko HONTIĆ and Simone TENUTI, who is the executive organizer of the International Meeting.
Friar Jack MARDESIC and the guardian of the Brussels friary, Friar Daniel THÉVENET, along with members of his community, provided warm and fraternal hospitality. For the first time, a new member was added to the organizing team, Friar Tomasz TĘGOWSKI. He represents the young members of the Militia of the Immaculate (M. I.) who will be participating in the event this August.
The organizing team finalized several themes for the International Meeting and will complete others later. The team members also clarified the situation regarding the meeting of the “Italian Youth” with the Holy Father. That meeting will take place Saturday and Sunday, August 11-12, 2018, in preparation for the Synod on Youth. Those young people of ours who can and want to arrive early will thus be able to participate in the meeting with the Pope.
In addition, for the first time, an estimate was made of the International Meeting’s expenses and some solutions were hypothesized to reduce costs.
The International Meeting will start in Assisi and will move to Rome for its final two and a half days. The closing Mass will be on Sunday, August 19, 2018, with Minister General Friar Marco TASCA presiding and participants in the Extraordinary General Chapter on the Constitutions concelebrating. Finally, on the same day, the friars may participate in the Angelus of Pope Francis.
On Sunday March 4, 2018, the organizing team attended Mass at our St. Anthony church in Brussels. Many of the faithful participated in this lively celebration.
After the team finished its work, Friar Miljenko HONTIĆ, the Assistant for the Centralis Europae Foederatio (CEF) and Friar Bart DE PAEPE, visited the nursing home in Halle, Brussels, where Friar Mark BRUSSELAERS lives. He is our oldest Belgian friar and a member of the Dutch Delegation. Friar Mark turns 93 this March and has just finished writing a book on Franciscan history in Belgium and Holland.

Friar Miljenko HONTIĆ, Assistant General for the CEF