Rome, September 9, 2024. In the late morning, the capitulars received a visitor from the Vatican in the Aula Magna: Sister Simona Brambilla, a member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters and Secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL). Her presence was immediately perceived as an expression of communion and interest on the part of the Church toward the Capuchins gathered in Chapter.
In a calm, clear voice, Sr. Simona quoted Pope Francis’ greeting to the Capuchins, whom he received in audience last week, dwelling on the “fraternal dimension” as a fundamental aspect of the Order’s charism, which must continue to characterize our presence in the world. She then used the biblical image of body and members to describe the Order itself. Each member is closely interconnected with the others, and each member is important and vital to the whole body. Indeed, Sr. Simona continued, the Order is a charismatic body and an apostolic body. All of us are deeply connected by virtue of our humanity, our faith, our belonging to Christ, our belonging to the same charism that makes us brothers, transfiguring our bonds into sacred bonds, into living veins and arteries that irrigate the one body and in which the blood of the charism flows. If one of the limbs of the body is sick, care is sought for the health of the whole body. Caring as a constant commitment of the brothers, building little by little a culture of care, a place where peace can grow.
The vitality of the Order is closely linked to the dynamics of the fraternity, understood as a body: “the Order as a body circulates what the members put into it.” The General Chapter, a lofty expression of communion in the Order, can also be a favorable time to “revisit our belonging to this body, to the spiritual and apostolic body of the Order, and to make ourselves more aware, on a personal and group level, of what we put into the veins and arteries of this body.”
She went on to acknowledge the beauty of our charism by pointing out that our identity “is rooted in a very special way in the warm and fruitful humus of universal brotherhood”; and this makes us small and lesser brothers, stooped before suffering humanity, like Christ before the dirty feet of the apostles, and before our own, for the world. Sister Simona closed her speech with an appeal to the “dear brothers”: “give us first of all this: the fragrance, the flavor, the warmth, the harmony, the caress of brotherhood! We need it, each and every one of us!” A brief exchange of questions brought the morning’s assembly work to a close. After lunch, the Secretary of the Dicastery still made herself available for a short interview, which you can find on our YouTube channel. The full text of Sr. Simona’s talk will be made available soon.