Today we become more aware every day of the plurality of cultures, even in the international brotherhood of the Order, rich in colours, languages, sensitivities, and very different visions. How can we experience this diversity that, in a society that some have defined as an “archipelago”, risks transforming Pentecost into a new Babel?
It seems to me that we are called to learn again to experience this multiformity not as a threat but as an opportunity, which also helps us also to listen to where the Spirit is leading us. In this way we can allow the charism entrusted to us to spawn new visions, new possibilities and to open new paths throughout this world.
Our task, in fact, is not that of repeating formulas which we had forged around the Mediterranean and in Europe, both within the Church and in our Franciscan family, but to listen to the way in which each culture allows us to affirm the core of the Christian faith, and of the forma vitae of the brothers and minors, contemplatives in mission among the poor.
This is Pentecost, which implies the mutual recognition of all. It is not a given among us. John XXIII dreamed of this with Vatican Council II, and synodality today is part of this movement.
We are moving at the Entity level of the Order toward the Chapters of Mats in the different Provinces and Custodies, which will flow into the international one of June 1-8, 2025, at St. Mary of the Angels. In these meetings we want to listen to our voices and together those of lay persons, lay and religious men and women, coming from many languages and cultures of the world, to reiterate our charism today.
We are working at different levels on three points:
We welcome this convocation, so as not to settle for repeating formulas, believing that the charism of Francis, Clare and Elizabeth is alive and can be expressed in the many languages and cultures of our world, to show us and everyone today the beauty and the newness of the Gospel of Jesus.
