If God wills it, and the world has not ended beforehand, we will begin the 203rd General Chapter with Mass in the chapel of the Seraphicum College in Rome, on June 1, 2025, 365 days from now.
We are only one year away from the most important meeting of the Order: the General Chapter. Our Constitutions tell us: “Supreme authority in the whole Order resides in and is exercised by the General Chapter, eminent sign of unity and fraternal communion” (Constitutions, art. 183, §1). This is a serious event, and we have been preparing for it for some time now.
Who shall come to Rome? Here, again the Constitutions tell us: “The Capitulars for each act of the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Chapter are: the Minister General, former Ministers General, General Definitors, Ministers Provincial, General and Provincial Custodes, and Delegates of the Provinces according to the norms of the General Statutes” (Constitutions, art. 200, §1).
We already know some of the Capitulars; they are the Ministers Provincial, Custodes, and Delegates of the Jurisdictions that conducted their Provincial and Custodial Chapters in the second half of 2021 and in 2022 and 2023. At the beginning of 2024, other Jurisdictions conducted elective Chapters, namely, the Province of Mary Immaculate in Indonesia and Provincial Custody of St. Leopold and St. Nicolas of Flüe in Austria-Switzerland. In the last few weeks, elective Chapters were conducted in the Provinces of Poland, the Province of St. Joseph, Spouse of the B.V.M. in Romania, the Province of Our Lady of Monserrat in Spain and, more recently, the Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the Czech Republic. Thus, we are becoming acquainted with the names of additional Ministers Provincial and Delegates. There are more elective Chapters to be conducted in Africa and Asia later this year. The Jurisdictions in Italy will conduct their Chapters at the start of 2025.
In all, we anticipate around 130 participants in the General Chapter. These include friars with active and passive voice, translators, and friars overseeing other services. At this point, you can start praying for the General Chapter to be a beautiful, fruitful, concrete and decisive event.
P.S. Please remember that the deadline for submitting reports is May 30, 2024. The time for sending topic proposals already expired on May 15, 2024. We received around twenty proposals. Let me just mention that there was some overlapping: some Jurisdictions unknowingly reported the same issues as other Jurisdictions. This is the first sign of the breath of the Holy Spirit, indicating the most important topics that need to be discussed.
The Secretary General
