During the recent Missionary Assembly held May 25-28, 2022, a new book was presented, entitled: “Go and Proclaim: The Presence of Friars Minor Conventual in the World – 2022.” It was published by the Missionary Center of the Federazione Inter-mediterranea Ministri Provinciali (FIMP) in collaboration with the General Secretariat for Mission Animation (SGAM).
The book (264 pp., Mediagraf Press) examines the individual missionary presences of our confreres across forty countries and five continents. It gives detailed descriptions of the political, social and ecclesial settings in which our missionaries serve. It describes the presence of the friars, as well, from their arrival in the mission, to the mission’s development and pastoral activities. It also provides a list of today’s mission communities, including the number of friars, the addresses of the friaries and some photos.
The book also helps the reader to understand more about missionary and Franciscan action through an examination of the life and activities of the friars in the countless places they have conducted active and dynamic evangelization.
In addition, this book, which is published in Italian, will subsequently be translated into the other languages of the Order and will be posted online. The book provides a tool to enter into the lived experience of our confreres and understand the Franciscan presence as it is embodied in the countries where the friars live and work.
The final entries are particularly interesting as they catalog our missions from 1925 to the present and list our current missionary presences. Those presences comprise 218 friaries, 115 Parishes, 344 simply professed, 288 solemnly professed and 809 priests. They represent a total of 1,441 friars and 63 houses of formation (27 postulancy houses, 13 novitiates and 23 post-novitiates).
The book contains a preface by the Minister General, Friar Carlos A. TROVARELLI and an introduction by Friar Paolo FIASCONARO, Director of the FIMP Missionary Center. This book was the result of a synergistic and active collaboration that began in 2018-19 between the SGAM and the Missionary Center and was finished in May of 2022.
“We hope”, reads the introduction, “that scrolling through these pages will rekindle the missionary spark in the heart of every reader and every friar, and lead them to rediscover the vitality and liveliness of the Franciscan charism in spreading the Gospel among, and with, the people entrusted to their apostolic mission “.
Friar Paolo FIASCONARO, Director of the FIMP Missionary Center