Tuesday, September 4, 2024. The Chapter is at the halfway point and the topic of today’s discussion is still collaboration. Brother Mariosvaldo Florentino, secretary of the General Curia’s Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization, Animation and Cooperation, presented a report on “Fraternal Collaboration and Mission” in which, in addition to offering a historical background of the path taken by the Order to date, he showed that the Order is experiencing a fruitful period for collaboration among circumscriptions, where there is no shortage of dangers and opportunities.
Among the dangers noted is the temptation to think that collaboration may present economic advantages for some provinces, preferring to send their brothers to countries where the standard of living is higher; another temptation could be to send in collaboration brothers who do not fit well into a service in their own province. Other times, brothers are sent who lack preparation; or the fraternities they receive are not sufficiently ready; in these cases, noted Br. Mariosvaldo, “the friars who do not fit in may be prejudiced,” or sidelined a bit, “or not listened to with the same relevance as the other friars.” Beyond these challenges, the secretary stressed the importance of fraternal collaboration starting from the awareness that the Capuchin friars are discovering themselves “as a Universal Order and not a conglomerate of independent and autonomous provinces that can grow and die without implicating the others.”
Therefore, Br. Mariosvaldo suggested to “set fraternal collaboration as a mission,” to highlight the missionary charism of the Franciscan Order, which has characterized the history of the Minorite Orders since St. Francis, and, still today, ours as Capuchin friars. He summarized as follows, “numerous friars over these nearly five centuries have been sent with evangelical generosity throughout the world, even as the face of the mission over time has changed. Circumscriptions have sought to respond with commitment to the demands of the Church and the general ministers, either as collaborators of Propaganda Fide or moved by the motto: “one province, one mission.” The ideal was to be “Capuchin, missionary and holy.” In light of these developments, and highlighting the role of divine inspiration that has always accompanied the Capuchin mission, Br. Mariosvaldo then proposed these criteria for friars going into collaboration/mission:
Suitability which means having the minimum conditions to cope with the demands of mission: adequate maturity, intellectual capacity to learn all that is needed, health that does not impair normal adaptation, sufficient capacity for detachment from family and environment of origin, apostolic zeal, the desire to serve God’s people in fraternity.
The preparation of those who leave and also of the fraternities that receive them. For this, the province or conference can promote specific courses on the main aspects of culture, history and social and ecclesial reality.
The time of the mission, which until now, in the collaboration between circumscriptions, had a specific deadline, it cannot be ruled out that a friar, after the time stipulated in the contract, may ask to stay “forever” where he has adapted well and lives his Capuchin life with passion.
On the “economic” side, it is good to exclude any kind of financial compensation for the service of brothers in collaboration/mission;
Open-mindedness toward entering a new culture, making sure that no one goes with prejudices; on the contrary, he must be moved by the desire to discover what God is already working where it is intended. The arriving friar must be open to being “born again”, to be incarnated in the new culture.
Br. Mariosvaldo concluded his talk by stating that, as an Order, “we are living an incredible time of grace that, as in all times, demands continuous conversion and fidelity to the Gospel. God is not leaving us without vocations, prayers for vocations are being heard, and with God’s grace we have so many young friars in so many circumscriptions […]. We have to find ways so that formation can really make these young enthusiastic, authentic Capuchin Friars Minor members of the Order and not just of a province, capable of living our charism wherever God calls them….”. At the end, the chapter members met in their groups for a time of deeper discussion on this theme.
