Dear brothers, as you are well aware, the 203rd<\/sup> Ordinary General Chapter of our Order (June 1-21, 2025) is being conducted in the particular context of the 8th<\/sup> Franciscan Centenary celebrations, namely, the Approval of the Rule and the Christmas at Greccio (2023), the Gift of the Stigmata (2024), the Composition of the Canticle of the Creatures (2025), the Easter of Francis of Assisi (2026), the 2025 Jubilee Year of the Church called by Pope Francis, and the commemoration of the 1700th<\/sup> anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which established the Symbol of Faith (Nicene Creed), which we still profess today.<\/p>\n However, I want to add another important anniversary to this list, which I am sure will be significant to the Chapter assembly: the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of the arrival of the first Conventual Franciscan friars in China (1925).<\/p>\n I mention this, not because of where the mission took place (China), or because of the coincidental timing of these centennial commemorations. I mention it because of the zeal and decisiveness that made such an endeavor possible during those years<\/em>. Indeed, if we can today consider this mission a milestone in the recent history of our religious family, it is rather because of the faith, courage, witness and even<\/em> martyrdom<\/em> of which our confreres were capable.<\/p>\n Friar Paolo FIASCONARO is the Director of the FIMP Franciscan Missionary Center and the co-author of the commemorative book: \u201cChina: The Missionary Dawn of the Friars Minor Conventual (1925-2025).<\/em>\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a> In his book, he discusses how our Order responded to the Church\u2019s call for missionaries at that time, namely, the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud<\/em> by Pope Benedict XV in 1919 and the Bull of Indiction of the 1925 Holy Year Infinita Dei misericordia <\/em>by Pope Pius XI, which promoted missions in the Church. Two Ministers General, Friar Domenico TAVANI and Friar Alfonso ORLINI, responded to the call. \u201cMinister General TAVANI,\u201d the author notes, \u201cin order to raise awareness among the friars about the mission, created the Franciscan Missionary Crusade<\/em>\u201d and, \u201cin 1924, the opening of the mission in China was approved, and the first group of eight friars (six from Sardinia one from Sicily and one from Tuscany)\u201d was sent forth on \u201cJuly 31, 1925, from the port of Brindisi [Italy]. After a journey of three months and ten days, they reached the city of Hingan in the Shensi (Shaanxi<\/em>) province of China.\u201d Prominent among those brave men, was the Most Reverend Giovanni SOGGIU, OFM Conv., the founder and first Apostolic Prefect of that mission. He was killed while carrying out his ministry as Director of the Mission.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n It is also important to remember that the call of the Church and the Order to open new horizons was not limited to China. Equally important were other missionary initiatives taken up by some Provinces at the start of the 20th<\/sup> century, such as the mission to Japan (1930) by St. Maximilian M. Kolbe and companion friars, and the mission to Zambia (1931) by the Venerable Servant of God Friar Francesco Costantino MAZZIERI, and many other friars from different Jurisdictions of the Order.<\/p>\n The generosity toward the mission ad gentes<\/em> in our Order remained alive throughout the 20th<\/sup> century and into the early 2000s. In fact, either on their own initiative or in response to calls from successive Ministers General, several Provinces opened new missions which, today, have become the true and concrete vitality of the Order. I wish to thank the Provinces that continue to promote, sustain, and revitalize these missions.<\/p>\n In our times\u2014precisely one hundred years later\u2014Pope Francis, recently deceased and still mourned, proclaimed the current Jubilee year with his Bull Spes non confundit<\/em>. In it, he expressed the hope that \u201cthe witness of believers be for our world a leaven of authentic hope, a harbinger of new heavens and a new earth (cf. 2 Pet <\/em>3:13)\u201d (cf. no. 25).<\/p>\n For his part, our newly elected Pope Leo XIV, in one of his first speeches,[3]<\/sup><\/a> mentioned some points from Pope Francis\u2019 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium<\/em>. Among the topics he addressed was the need for the entire Christian community to undergo a missionary conversion (cf. no. 9).<\/p>\n In this letter, I want to connect all these important historical moments. Indeed, as I wrote in the introduction to the aforementioned book from the FIMP Franciscan Missionary Center: \u201cJust as in 1925, it was necessary to respond to the missionary call with urgency and generosity, so today, reading the signs of the times, we are compelled not to neglect discernment, formation, and commitment to missionary life\u2026 This centenary invites us to purify and renew the spirit and energy of our existing missions and\u2014with God\u2019s grace\u2014to reflect and act toward opening new ones\u2026 I invite all the friars, the whole Order, to rekindle our missionary zeal, as it was one hundred years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the signs of the times, which is not difficult to perceive, refers to the very different levels of vitality in local Churches, and the different religious sensibilities of peoples. Indeed, while many countries with millennia-old or centuries-old Catholic traditions are drifting away from faith and religious practice, in other regions people eagerly await the presence of pastors, religious, or other evangelizers.<\/p>\n Yet, we still find it hard to understand this reality. Proof of this is that, even in areas of low engagement with faith and Church life, we persist in carrying out a faint-hearted pastoral ministry that is merely focused on maintenance. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, the People of God and the Church hierarchy are crying out for our presence. The risk of seeking refuge in the comfort of the familiar<\/em> becomes a kind of evangelical omission<\/em>\u2014not only in the Old World<\/em> but also in the New<\/em>; that is, in all the Provinces or Federations where the tendency toward comfort or immediate reward leads to a loss of missionary motivation, or worse still<\/em>, a pursuit of security and thus a lack of generosity.<\/p>\n Thank God that in our day we have some honorable counterexamples: friars and Provinces who, even drawing from their own poverty, offer their lives to proclaim Christ and to shepherd a people hungry for God, dignity, and a transparent, faith-filled presence. <\/p>\n Brothers, may the celebration of all these anniversaries\u2014almost as if anticipating the new earth<\/em>\u2014be for us an opportunity to strengthen our faith, renew our vocation, and offer the world a renewed Franciscan vision, clothed in prophetic, missionary itinerancy. May it be so!<\/p>\n Friar Carlos A. TROVARELLI <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/sup><\/a> FIASCONARO, Friar Paolo, Cina l\u2019alba missionaria dei Frati Minori Conventuali. Centenario dell\u2019apertura della Missione (1925-2025). Facsimile edition of the book by Friar Matteo LUO, OFM Conv. (1975). Includes an interview with Friar Paolo LIU, OFM Conv. (2025). Rome, 2025. FIMP Franciscan Missionary Center. Dear brothers, as you are well aware, the 203rd Ordinary General Chapter of our Order (June 1-21, 2025) is being conducted in the particular context of the 8th Franciscan Centenary celebrations, namely, the Approval of the Rule and the Christmas at Greccio (2023), the Gift of the Stigmata (2024), the Composition of the Canticle of the Creatures (2025), the Easter of Francis of Assisi (2026), the 2025 Jubilee Year of the Church called by Pope Francis, and the commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which established the Symbol of Faith (Nicene Creed), which we still profess today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2974,148],"tags":[1922,428],"class_list":["post-82352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-chapter","category-news","tag-letter","tag-minister-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82352","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=82352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/span>[2]<\/sup><\/a> SIMBULA, Friar Giuseppe, Mons. Giovanni SOGGIU, 1883-1930, missionario e martire in Cina, Franciscan Library of Sardinia, Oristano, 2005 (Maestri e Testimoni Vol. 2).
\n<\/span>[3]<\/sup><\/a> HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV, Address to the College of Cardinals, Saturday May 10, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"