On November, 7-10, 2019, the International Board of Directors of Franciscans International<\/em> (FI) met in New York, USA, for the third stage of the celebration of the 30th anniversary FI\u2019s recognition as a \u201cnon-governmental organization\u201d (NGO) accredited with the United Nations (UN).<\/strong><\/p>\n The meeting provided an opportunity to evaluate the progress of FI. Such an evaluation is normally made during the annual meeting in New York. Friar Joseph BLAY, Delegate General for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On November, 7-10, 2019, the International Board of Directors of Franciscans International (FI) met in New York, USA, for the third stage of the celebration of the 30th anniversary FI\u2019s recognition as a \u201cnon-governmental organization\u201d (NGO) accredited with the United Nations (UN). The meeting provided an opportunity to evaluate the progress of FI. Such an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,120,148],"tags":[596,1599],"class_list":["post-20260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-offices","category-gpic-en","category-news","tag-franciscans-international","tag-franciscans-international-2-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEarly on the morning of November 7, six representatives of the Franciscan families; a representative from the Anglican Franciscan fraternity; the president of the FI International Board of Directors; the FI Executive Director; the FI Representative in New York; and the FI Director of Communications, met in the office of the UN Secretary-General, His Excellency Ant\u00f3nio Manuel DE OLIVEIRA GUTERRES. During the twenty-minute audience, the Secretary General discussed his own personal relationship with the Franciscan friars, which began in his youth. Speaking about the UN’s main work for world peace, His Excellency acknowledged the achievements of both faith-based and civil associations. He noted that the UN continues to rely on such cooperation and is grateful for it.
\nThe President of the FI International Council, Friar Joe ROZANSKY, OFM, spoke about three goals the NGO has achieved in the last four years. Among the projects it has carried out, he mentioned \u201csaving witch children in Benin\u201d, \u201cthe handbook on poverty and human rights” and “connecting the dots”. Regarding the work done in Benin, UNICEF has accepted FI\u2019s results as an excellent model that should be adopted by the United Nations in order to defend and promote human rights.
\nIn the afternoon, the Board began the first session of its meeting. It determined scheduling and issues to be studied.
\nOn Friday November 8, friars and nuns from various Franciscan families gathered in St. Francis Hall to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary. The guest of honor was Her Excellency Helena del Carmen Y\u00c1NEZ LOZA, representing the UN Ambassador to Ecuador. In her report, she praised the Franciscan charism especially in the context of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.
\nAfter the celebration, the Board moved to the OFM Provincial House of the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus to continue their work.<\/p>\n