On the morning of August 26, the work of General Chapter 2024 officially began with the agenda established by the General Council during its preparations. The program began with a Eucharistic celebration, followed by an invocation of the Holy Spirit and a procession to the Aula Magna where the General Minister officially announced the opening of the 86th General Chapter.
The Eucharistic celebration, streamed on the Chapter’s YouTube channel, was celebrated by Bishop Paolo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of South Arabia, and concelebrated by the General Minister, Brother Roberto Genuin, the Vicar General, Brother José Ángel Torres Rivera, and all the General Councilors. In his wide-ranging and rich homily, Bishop Paul, stressed the importance of the General Chapter as a “sign and instrument of unity and solidarity” of the Order and called the friars “to the unity that makes us first and foremost mendicants of the Holy Spirit.” Quoting Pope Francis, who qualifies our times as “changing times and not just times of change,” Martinelli urged the capitulars “to face reality as it presents itself, whether we like it or not.” Then he added, “times change, and we must recognize that we often do not know how to fit into the new scenarios; we may dream of the onions of Egypt, forgetting that the Promised Land is in front, not behind, and in this nostalgia for times past we are petrifying ourselves, we are mummifying ourselves. This is not a good thing.” Likewise, quoting Pope Francis again, he warned against seeking change as a path to pander to the fashions of the moment, risking worldliness: the Church “is youthful when it is itself. It is youthful when it is capable of continually returning to its source.” He went on to acknowledge the importance of bringing attention to the evangelization of cultures and the inculturation of the Gospel and of charism (and that is what we do), but more specifically called out the need to promote the interculturality of the Gospel and of charism.
Taking cues from his experience as a bishop in the multicultural context of Arabia, Bishop Paul concluded his homily by reminding the brothers that “religious life and the Church must be prophecy of the polyphony of faith for all peoples. Walking together, synodality, is realized only when we have the courage to accommodate difference among ourselves.”
Nourished by the Eucharist and after a brief pause, the brothers returned once again to the beautiful chapel of the Collegio, where they sang the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus in unison, and the General Minister prayed to the Lord that “the 86th General Chapter may bear fruit according to God’s plan,” aware that “if the Lord does not build the house in vain do the builders toil.”
With this prayer and as brother and pilgrims of love, the capitulars, led by the General Minister, left the chapel in procession toward the Aula Magna, the place where the main sessions of the Chapter will be held from now on. Some symbols of our faith (candles, cross, incense and the Book of the Gospels) accompanied this moment of procession and recitation of the Litany of the Saints. With the entrance into the Aula Magna, the General Minister declared General Chapter 2024 open.
A few minutes later, by now late in the morning, the General Minister invited Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa to deliver his conference, as scheduled; the preacher remarked on the centrality of Christ for our lives: “Christ yesterday, today, and always.”
