Dear brothers, we invite you to read the latest issue of Commentarium Ordinis which covers the period of January to December, 2016.
Following the decision of the General Definitory, this 2016 edition of Commentarium Ordinis is the start of a new approach for this publication. We should mention that at present, the General Curia has three media outlets: Commentarium Ordinis, Fraternus Nuntius and the Order’s website.
Commentarium Ordinis can now be characterized as a collection of written works compiled for the purpose of historical documentation, not news. News items, instead, are relayed to the Order’s Website (current news) and Fraternus Nuntius (quarterly news). Only one issue of Commentarium Ordinis is published per year. A special issue is published for the celebration of General Chapters or Extraordinary Assemblies of the Order. A limited number of copies are printed and sent to all the Provincial and Custodial headquarters, Provincial Delegations, and the principal libraries of each Jurisdiction.
All Commentarium Ordinis issues, past and present, are available and downloadable in PDF format on the Order’s website. Documents are published in their original language. The contents generally include the Annual Letter of the Minister General and any other major letters; the Acts of the General Definitory; an annual summary of the work of the General Offices; news concerning Provincial and Custodial Chapters; news concerning Assemblies of the Order’s Federations; a necrology of the friars; statistics; and some captioned photos.
Here is a summary of some of the topics covered in 2016 issue:
From the Acta Summi Pontificis et Apostolicae Sedis:
a synthesis of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia of the Holy Father Francis; the Apostolic Letter Misericordia Et Misera of the Holy Father Francis at the Conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy and some homilies or speeches of the Holy Father concerning religious life, especially Franciscan religious life.
From the Congregation of the Causes of Saints:
decrees on the heroic virtues of the Servants of God: Quirico PIGNALBERI, Venanzio KATARZYNIEC (secularly called Joseph) and Luigi Lo Verde (secularly called Filippo).
From the Acta Ministri Generalis:
the Decree of suppression-erection of the Italian Province of St. Francis and the proclamation convoking the Provincial Chapter of the Italian Province of St. Francis with attached documents.
From the General Secretariat:
a summary of the General Definitory Meetings, news on some general canonical visitations, the “diary” of the Minister General, and the diaries of the Assistants General and various “Officiales Ordinis.”
As usual, the issue concludes with a necrology of the friars who died in 2016.
Friar Robert LEŻOHUPSKI, Editor in Chief of Commentarium Ordinis
