The meeting of the new European Forms of Life and Evangelisation was held in Rome from 6 to 8 October 2022.
Full address by the Minister General, Br Massimo Fusarelli, OFM.
General Curia, 6-8 October 2022
A NEW BEGINNING
Dear Brothers, may the Lord give you peace!
Welcome to our General House, where different faces can meet in the common charismatic bond and try to express themselves in new ways in a never-preordained harmony.
I find myself at home with you because I, too, have been part of this movement and owe it much. I am intimately convinced that it is vital for us today to take up this path again and sustain it.
As we know, with the parable of the fraternity of Palestrina, from the death of our beloved Br Giacomo to its closure, the path of encounter and exchange of the New Forms came to a halt. After listening to the General Definitory and the General Secretariat for Evangelisation, I judged that it was time to pick up the threads of significant life experiences and relaunch them. I also listened to the wishes of several brothers among us. I thank Br Francisco Gomez for believing in it and for his commitment.
The impetus for this revival applies to the whole Order scattered around the world. Here you are, friars, from the European continent, where the call to live the Gospel resonates in a particular environment and time. The same movement must be facilitated in the other continents with their own characteristics. We all need to keep the impetus towards a life of brothers and minors, rich in the zest of the Gospel, which never ceases to provoke and disturb us from our complacency.
A call to memory
The new fraternities have an important history (cf. Ite, Nuntiate 1.1, pp. 15-18), from France in the 1930s to before and after Vatican II. An important movement which prepared and accompanied the conciliar renewal in the Order in different cultural and geographical contexts, with many faces and important choices of life and renewal. From Europe to the Americas, from Asia and Oceania to Africa, we could hear many stories, powerful and beautiful, perhaps the Fioretti of today. Moreover, this type of new fraternity is called for in the General Constitutions (115.2) and was strongly promoted by the 2009 General Chapter (Bearers of the Gift of the Gospel, Mandate 20) to "give flesh" to the identity and novelty of our charism.
At the same time, while the impetus has been great and generous, this novelty has not found, except in one case, a more accomplished institutional form that would make the various realities stable, many of which have lasted a short time or have remained with the same members for many years.
Moreover, it seems to be the same path that occurred for the reinterpretation of the charism deposited in the Constitutions, very charismatic and inspiring on the one hand and, on the other, too poor in new forms capable of expressing that newness. This is an important question for our present and future: to get out of the impasse of a renewal that has failed to take place with the necessary means towards a new reality. The tension we register between the ordinary way of life of individuals and fraternities and the permanent call that the person and intention of St Francis keep alive among us, today more than ever, urges us to dare more. Not only that. A sign of this is the love of all of us for the one we call forma minorum and the desire of several, continually among us, to give more soul and be able to live in our time according to the fire of the charism. All this confirms to us that it is necessary to find ways to dream and to be able to live a future compatible
with the charism and not just with the continuity of a religious institution, which in many latitudes now displays all its fragility.
The labour of these last 60 years highlights the tension between charism and institution in the form, on the one hand of the formidable rediscovery of the "Saint-Franciscan" inspiration - that which pertains to Saint Francis and the primitive fraternitas as a form of life - and on the other hand of the "Franciscan" inspiration, the historical fulfilment of the charism over the centuries, up to today.
After all, many among us think that the "dream" of the origins was valid for a mythological past and that we are called to give continuity and development to the Order as we know it at the service of the Church for today's humanity. The ordinary pastoral, educational, and scientific mission carried out in the institutions that the past, ancient, or recent, has given us would be sufficient.
What we have rediscovered with strength and passion over the last 60 years is that the experience and living memory that St Francis has handed on to us is not so much that of a set of "works" to be lived and sustained as of a life according to the Gospel, as brothers and minors, in the footsteps of the poor and crucified Christ: this is our witness - the life converted by the Gospel - which can also become for many an explicit proclamation in words.
The many generous attempts at renewal and then the many stories of new forms of life and evangelisation testify to how much this awareness is alive among us and a source of hope.
We must recognise that this is not recognised in the same way by the brothers, although it has been the language of the Constitutions for many years now. We have not internalised this intuition, and for the most part, we live a model of pastoral life, with some everyday events and commitments in which we also want to live well. Still, we listen with difficulty to the breath and strength of the intention of St Francis. And this reality has important repercussions on our shared common identity, style, concrete choices, and the impetus that animates us. It seems to me that, for the most part, we do not talk about all this for fear of divisions among us or even for lack of motivation or strength to change. We must recognise that many among us are fine with the way things are or are resigned to being unable to live any other way.
This not only does not deny but recognises and appreciates the sincere and hard-working fidelity of many in the so-called traditional presences, where it is possible to live the Rule with complete consistency. At the same time, fidelity is not just an individual commitment, but something that belongs to everyone, with visible and truly shared values and choices to the charism as the Constitutions convey it to us today, in different and complex situations. It is the tension towards this quest that cannot fail, even if we always remain inadequate and very individualistic today.
We have been experiencing this for so many years, but we do not seem to be able to find a way out. I also recognise that it is unthinkable that we all do it in the same way. Someone helped me reflect on our unity and diversity in living according to the same charism. This means that there is no univocal way to express the charism. Therefore we must allow some to live according to what the Spirit of the Lord suggests to the heart of all, starting from the inspiration of St Francis preserved in his Writings and the tradition that the Constitutions pass on to us.
Life at the centre, in today's world, for a future of hope
It is always vital and necessary for us believers to return to the Gospel. Let us listen to Mark 2:21-22:
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins".
The search for new wineskins, that is, institutional structures adequate to contain and preserve the new wine of the charism, of our ever-new form of evangelical life, has represented and represents a challenge and, at the same time, a call for contemporary Franciscan history.
The meeting that opens today is meant to help us listen to this call again, with confidence, seeking the fire that burns beneath the ashes.
First of all, life. In the first place, there is always a «radically evangelical life that has the potential to be a sign and witness of the Kingdom to our contemporaries. The influence of documents from the Church and the Order has led to the central motivation of the projects moving in the direction of Evangelisation, without however forgetting that fraternal life in minority is the source of any true mission» In the first place, there is always "a radically evangelical life that can be a sign and witness of the Kingdom for our contemporaries. Urged on by the documents of the Church and the Order, the motivational centre of life projects has shifted to evangelisation, not forgetting, however, that fraternal life in minority is the spring source for every true evangelising mission" (cf. Ite, nuntiate 1.1, page 15). During these two days, let us ask ourselves how we are centred on this life.
At this time. "We came to the realisation that we are faced with totally new questions and changed understandings because of the fact that, particularly within the European Continent, post-modernity has profoundly altered so many cultural paradigms. In addition, there was a clear perception that the language, symbols, locations, and the ways in which we had tried to express our form of life until then, were no longer adequate. The responsibility was felt of making the charism more and more meaningful, so that our lifestyle could regain qualities such as transparency, testimony, and evangelical power, in order to become both prophecy and sign.
During that time, many friars had experiences which made them aware that the Spirit of the Lord was guiding them to new ways of perceiving, thinking, and daring. Moreover, a number of friars found that the New Forms were a concrete expression of their desire for renewal and revitalisation of their Consecrated Life. This came about in the context of the difficulties they experienced at the spiritual, personal, and community levels because of the influence that our "historical" structures have on the way we follow Our Lord Jesus Christ". (cf. Ite, nuntiate 1.1, p. 16).
Resistances. I am well aware that all this is greeted with disquiet by many of us and experienced as a threat to what is being carried forward, even with generosity. Yet, we cannot let the question in us die out and ask ourselves together where we are today in the journey and what the steps might be to continue the paths of the new forms of life and evangelisation. It is clear that "The New Forms of Life and Mission want to revisit the Franciscan Sources, which are perennially fresh and new, to imbibe the original charism of Saint Francis, the "new man", the man of the future. The sources will lead us to be inspired and energised, so we can develop new ways of doing things, new models and styles of evangelisation, new missionary strategies". (cf. Ite, nuntiate 1.2, p. 23).
Possibilities. This thrust lives within all the friars, even if it is so often subdued or silenced: let us not judge; let us help one another to listen again to this deep voice. I wish, and we want to help together, first of all, the Ministers Provincial and Custodes, who have the task of discerning the inspiration of the friars entrusted to them, encouraging them, and closely following the establishment of new fraternities. It is also important to support, in particular, brothers inspired to live the New Forms of Life and Mission to offer support, sympathy and guiding criteria in making what burns in their hearts a reality. Would that we had so many brothers who wish to dare more and risk, to spend themselves for this! The desire I present to your listening and discernment is to start thinking about interprovincial and international Fraternities, why not also inter-obediential ones, especially in the
north of the planet, where the Order is experiencing a major reduction and change. Let's look, in fact, at our family in 30 years' time in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. It is hard to deny that we will be very few in small fraternities lacking the large structures of the past, scattered over a large territory and unable to live according to the autonomy and self-sufficiency of even the recent past. I am not afraid to say that within the next 30-50 years in these territories, we will be able to have a few realities that we call provinces, learning new ways of living them and going beyond the current form. This is not an early funeral, but the clarity of vision to sustain the confidence of wanting to live our vocation in this new condition and to make this possible for the brothers whom the Lord will want to call. We are responsible for this. The topic of new fraternities makes sense, then, to look to the future in a new way, sustaining some presences and not limiting ourselves to carrying on the existing to the point of exhaustion.
These fraternities must necessarily be united in their charismatic choices and style (cf. Ite, Nuntiate n. 2.1, pages 29-31) and at the same time diversified in their appearance and choice of presence and mission (cf. Ite, Nuntiate n. 2.3, pages 37-38).
What step?
We urgently need to witness the Christi vivendi forma, recovering lightness and evangelising audacity. Br Giacomo Bini asked us to recognise the call "to move from the logic of conservation and survival to the logic of free gift; from the strategy of waiting in the "closed" to the audacity of encounter. We are invited to constantly reconcile, within each fraternity, Province and Order, prophecy and communion, novelty, and continuity, with respect for each brother. Daring new forms of life and evangelisation does not mean devaluing what has been done or is being done, but only "elaborating new responses ... new projects of evangelisation for today's situations" (VC 73). The criterion of truth of every form of evangelisation, whether new or already existing, is not survival or comfort, but the correspondence of our lifestyle to the Gospel, to the Rule, to the "coherence between proclamation and life" (VC 85)" (cf. Ite, nuntiate, pp. 55-56).
The vital step, I believe, is to welcome and live the present of the human person in our time, with the confidence that it is possible to live the forma vitae deposited in the Rule and Testament - mediated by the Constitutions - in the perspective of unity in diversity.
On this path, a renewal of the institution-Order according to the charism is possible:
· On the one hand, to gather in that forma vitae some fundamental and general inspirational operative principles, valid for every time and adaptable to every context, to be proposed to the journey of the entire universal Fraternity, of the various Entities and each local Fraternity;
· On the other hand, to guarantee the right of citizenship and legitimate institutional space, within the Order and its entities, to possible attempts at a dynamic, faithful, and creative re-proposition of that same forma vitae.
Conclusion
There are no conclusions because the questions remain open, and we want to ask them again together. We are preparing to gratefully review the last decisive years of the human and evangelical adventure of St Francis. I hope we will also be able to do so with boldness, animated by the desire to listen and welcome the word of prophecy that the Spirit still delivers to us for our time.
Many people always ask me how the Order is going. As long as there are brothers who question themselves, seek and do so together, I think it is fine. If they then make shared choices to say with their lives that it is possible not to repeat, but to live the Gospel today according to the forma vitae that we see in Francis, then it is fine. I believe it, I hope it, and with love and dedication, I wish for my part to welcome this voice from my brothers, to support it where necessary, to unceasingly ask
the Spirit to stir it up, indeed, to make it blaze in our fraternity in the world. It is only on this path that the forces of death represented by the extinguishing of faith and vocation, with the consequent inability to live and savour with passion and joy the beauty of a life following Jesus obediently, without anything of one's own and chaste for the sake of the Kingdom, to resign oneself to living as poor surrogates, will be conquered, and overcome. With this wish, have a good meeting and above all have a good journey!
Br. Massimo Fusarelli, ofm
Minister General
