The day began at 7:00 a.m. with Mass presided over by our confrere, and former Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, the Most Reverend Marco TASCA, Archbishop of Genoa, Italy. In his homily, he reminded the Capitulars to live out the joy of being Christians, and, following the words of St. Paul the Apostle, to always undertake their work, and the trials the Lord may offer them, with humility.
The work of the assembly began at 9:15 a.m. with the conclusion of the first session. The first electronic vote to elect the Auditors of the Causes was also successfully carried out. Everything proceeded quickly and smoothly.
The second session of the Chapter then opened with a full reading of the report of the Minister General, Friar Carlos A. TROVARELLI. He also celebrated his name-day today, the feast day of St. Charles Lwanga, Martyr of Uganda.
The report began with an address from the Secretary General and Chapter Secretary, Friar Tomasz SZYMCZAK, who presented his work on the statistics of the Order.
His analysis mainly focused on the trend in the number of our friars, a number which has remained largely stable since the post-World War II period. Currently, there are about 3,750 friars, and this figure has shown little fluctuation, despite shifting global socio-cultural conditions. Although the West is facing a demographic crisis, the consolidation of our presences in Asia and Africa has helped maintain a general balance. One key point highlighted by Friar Tomasz was that the Order thrives, shows initiative, and grows, when communities are numerous and friaries can live in full fraternity. In contrast, where numbers are low and friars are overly burdened, there tends to be downsizing and closures.
The Minister General then read his full report, which concluded in the afternoon. He focused his address on the words of Pope Francis for the 2025 Jubilee Year: Spes non confundit. Faced with a world that asks us to live and bear witness to our charism of authentic fraternity and reconciled relationships, we often lack the courage and enthusiasm to reform our comfortable way of life. Our mission needs to be rethought so that it is lived out as a truly communal work, overcoming every temptation toward individualism and clericalism.
It is true that over the past six years, no new missions have been established. However, what was decided at the 2019 General Chapter has been implemented: renewing and enhancing the General Secretariat for Mission Animation and creating the new Projects Office, which has been hard at work and is yielding results.
Friar Carlos focused above all on thanking his collaborators and inviting individual friars and Jurisdictions to propose new mission endeavors. The motion from the last General Chapter on “new wineskins” did not yield the hoped-for results, and in concrete terms, no new pastoral works were realized.
Our way of life must be rethought and renewed, starting with continuing formation. Unfortunately, many of our community projects remain only on paper. We must re-center our lives on the Lord Jesus, who always invites us to be his true disciples.
The Chapter proceedings concluded at 7:00 p.m., when, after the reading of the Minister General’s report, time was reserved to answer questions from the Capitulars.
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