With the joy of living a Synodal Church and motivated by the proposal of the Order of Friars Minor, which at the General Chapter of 2021 had as its mandate (No. 4) to promote a moment of authentic experience of fraternal life, to listen to each person who works and who is in our most varied Fronts of Evangelization, the Provincial Ministers and Custodes of the Franciscan Conference of Brazil and Southern Cone (CFByCS) together with the Secretaries of the Mats Chapters of the respective Entities, were gathered for the Assembly and Celebration of the Mats Chapter at the Conference level, from the 25th - 30th August 2024 in Belo Horizonte/MG, Brazil.
The goal throughout the OFM is to remember and rekindle our identity as Friars Minor, which is embodied in the effective ability to listen, learn and change our will, heart, intelligence and feet.
The Secretaries present shared the fruits and importance of the celebration of the Chapter of the Mats in the respective Entities, highlighting that it was a time of true reciprocal, attentive and understanding listening, as well as a great opportunity that each Entity had to live the communion of Franciscan spirituality through the presence of the laity involved in the most varied Fronts of Evangelization and of the members of the Franciscan Family (Religious, OFS and YOUFRA).
The gathering the Final Documents received from the Entities was a work of the friars who had served as Secretaries during the Local the Chapters of Mats, in order to build a final document to be sent to the Preparatory Commission for the "Chapter of Mats" that will take place at the level of Order from the 2nd-8th June 2025, in Assisi, Italy.
These days were marked by fraternal coexistence, prayer and the sharing of local realities. An arduous work, but, above all, fruitful, and that will certainly contribute to the Order. "We are a new, bilingual, large-scale Conference that covers 4 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay), with a great plurality of culture and institutional practices in our entities that enriches us and challenges us to communion," concluded the friars in the final drafting of the document that will be sent to the Order.
Let us pray to Mary, Mother of God, advocate and Queen of the Order, to intercede for all the friars. May St. Francis of Assisi, our Seraphic Father, help us to reflect and rekindle our identity as Friars Minor.
Secretaries of the Chapter of Mats 2024 (CFByCS)
