The General Procurator of the Order is responsible "in the name of the Minister General, to conduct and expedite all of the Order's business with the Holy See" (cf. SSGG Art. 156 §2).
Currently, the General Procurator, Br Claudio Durighetto, of the Seraphic Province of St Francis of Assisi in Italy, and the Deputy General Procurator and Secretary of the Procuratorate, Br Chryzostom Fryc, of the Province of St Francis of Assisi in Poland, are working there.
The Procurator deals with matters to be submitted first to the General Definitory and then to the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Naturally, it deals most frequently with the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life: for rescripts and dispensations, for nihil obstat for alienations and juridical recognitions, for disciplinary matters. The most common dossiers are: requests for an indult to leave the Order and for an indult of secularisation with a view to incardination in a diocese.
In addition, there are requests for exclaustration and proceedings for dismissal from the Order (although the latter two types no longer provide for access to the Holy See, they are still dealt with by the Procura). At the Dicastery for the Clergy, there are numerous dossiers to request a dispensation from the obligations deriving from sacred ordination, including celibacy, and at the same time, from vows. At the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, documentation is presented concerning allegations of delicta graviora, including the abuse of minors, which then gives indications on how to proceed; with the same Dicastery, any doctrinal, faith or moral questions arising from publications edited by friars are also dealt with.
The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is asked to approve votive Masses, Proper Masses, and particular liturgical Calendars. Requests for indulgences and nominations for the appointment of Ordinary Penitentiaries for the Basilica of St John Lateran and Extraordinary Penitentiaries for St John Lateran and St Peter's Basilica are submitted to the Apostolic Penitentiary. More rarely, it deals with the Secretariat of State, with the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches (e.g. to accept a candidate from an Oriental Church or for the faculty of bi-ritualism), with the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
The Procurator generally studies the material coming from the Order's entities, verifies the correctness of the procedures and the completeness of the documentation, and then submits it, with its own observations, to the Minister General for passage to the Definitory. Subsequently, it presents it - usually with the Minister General's votum - to the competent Dicastery.
The following are excluded from the Procurator's competence: processes for the Causes of Saints, matters directly concerning Study Centres and those concerning the Sisters of the Second Order.
The Procurator also performs a "consultancy" role for the General Definitory and the Ministers, Custodes and Provincial and Custodial Secretaries for everything concerning the juridical sphere: (Code of Canon Law, General Constitutions, General Statutes, etc.) and the various procedures. In addition, it contributes to the formation courses for new Ministers and Custodes and for Visitators General, always dealing with canonical and disciplinary issues and those relating to proceedings in cases of child abuse. The Juridical Commission and the Commission for Appeals to the Minister General also report to the Procurator
It works more closely with the General Secretariat, the Minister General's Private Secretariat, the Protocol Office and the Commission for the Safeguarding of Minors.
