by Antonio Belpiede
OFM Cap
Translated from
Italian by Michele Russo
*
The following article was published in the Italian review Italia Francescana, n. 86 (2011), pp. 297 - 312.
The 84th General Chapter 2012 of our Order
has approved a new text of the Constitutions, promulgated december 8th 2013. Some
numbers have been changed. We have changed the quotations according to the
final text. It could be possible to have some unrelevant differences in the
text. The translator worked on the italian text before the final approval.
1.1 THE REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTIONS AND
THE CHANGE OF THE “MISSION” PARADIGM
The
further revision of the Constitutions of Capuchin Friars Minor, which is now
being fulfilled, is characterized by a context whose sense of “Mission” is
going through a process of remarkable changes.
The
traditional assumption considered as synonyms the concepts of evangelization
and Missio ad gentes1. On the one hand there were the
churches of ancient Christian tradition, on the other there were the Mission
territories, such as Africa, Latin America and Asia. It was deemed necessary to
strengthen faith in the churches both in the catechesis for Christian
initiation and, particularly after the council, in the catechesis for adults2. The term evangelization, however, was
generally regarded as a “first evangelization”, that is to say the one the
missionaries usually accomplish in distant countries. Such a notion has been
expressed so far by using a practical concept which is in harmony with the Jus (classic latin for “Right”), in the
jurisdictional division of the particular churches between the bishops’ Congregation
(which is responsible for the dioceses of ancient tradition) and the
congregation for the evangelization of peoples (also known as Propaganda fide, which is appointed by
dioceses and other particular churches in Mission territories)3. Canon 786 legally defines the time
limit of a mission: «The mission itself, through which the church is founded
among the peoples where it is not rooted, is accomplished by the church, by
sending the announcers of the gospel, until
the new churches are fully constituted»4.
The mission, properly speaking, or any “missionary action”, comes to an end
with the birth of a particular church. Any liability is handed on to the
diocesan bishop, who is no longer the Roman bishop’s representative, like the
prefect or the vicar apostolic, who presides over the mission, but he is the
representative of “Christus Dominus”, he is the apostles’ successor and the member
of the bishops’ College5. The
bishop, assisted by his presbytery, has the task of supporting faith and hope
and of arousing the charity of God’s people. In other words, the particular
church «is endowed with its own strengths and means with which it is able to
accomplish the evangelization». The diocesan bishop is, moreover, responsible
for supporting the missionary action in distant places (canon, 790 § 1). Such
an attitude was connected with the idea according to which the world is divided
«into certain areas that the Holy See recognizes». As a result, it followed a simple
division between a first evangelization in mission territories and a further
evangelization. The methods, the goals and the instruments of “the religious
education” in the particular churches of ancient tradition were generally
different from the ones used by the first missionary service6.
Nonetheless,
the council had immediately sensed the possibility of a more complex evolution:
«The people the church often deals with often change for different reasons, and
new situations can be generated. In this
case, the church should consider if these situations require its mission again»7. Blessed John Paul II caught the
upcoming change of the times and perceived the increasing deterioration of the
division between Christian nations and pagan areas. In his homily during the
visit at the shrine of Mogila, at Nowa Huta, Poland, on June 9th 1979, he
uttered for the first time the term “new evangelization”. In the following
magisterium, the Pope developed this concept. In the encyclic Redemptoris missio he underlined the
only mission of the church. The differences that characterize the church are
not due to “reasons which exist in the mission itself, but to the different
circumstances in which it takes place»8.
The present-day situation leads the Pope to pinpoint three types of missions of
the church: the “missio ad gentes”, considered according to the traditional
concept; the activity or the pastoral care that the church on behalf of strong
local communities, which are well structured and pregnant with faith and life;
the support of the ancient Christian communities with difficult situations.
John Paul II says:
Thirdly,
there is an intermediate situation, particularly in countries with ancient
Christian roots, and occasionally in the younger Churches as well, where entire
groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer
consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from
Christ and his Gospel. In this case what is needed is a "new
evangelization" or a "re-evangelization"9.
The
Polish Pope’s magisterium, beside its
fundamental ideas, has led to the following consideration: it is necessary to
update and revise the principles of the mission in the “First World”, which is
afflicted by «indifferentism, secularism and atheism»10.
On
promulgating the new Code of Canon law with the Apostolic Constitution Sacrae Disciplinae Leges, John Paul II,
in 1983, described it as «a great effort to translate the ecclesiology of the
Council into a canonistic language»11.
Owing to one of those paradoxes of history that sometimes make you smile, it
was the pope theologian, Benedict XVI, to translate into juridical language the
theology of new evangelization, begun by his predecessor. On September 21, 2010,
on the feast of the evangelist Matthew, he promulgated the apostolic letter in
the form of “motu proprio”, Ubicumque et
semper, establishing the new Pontifical Council in order to support the new
evangelization. The Holy Father mentions explicitly the direct forerunners of
this document: John Paul II and Paul VI.
The
Venerable Servant of God John Paul II made this urgent task a central point of
his far-reaching Magisterial teaching, referring to it as the “new
evangelization,” which he systematically explored in depth on numerous occasions—a
task that still bears upon the Church today, particularly in regions
Christianized long ago. Although this task directly concerns the Church’s way
of relating ad extra, it nevertheless presupposes first of all a constant
interior renewal, a continuous passing, so to speak, from evangelized to
evangelizing.
Paul VI
was the first, with the far-sightedness that Benedict XVI ascribes to him, to
understand that only a church that evangelizes itself is able to “seek the
proper means and the language for introducing, or re-introducing [men] to the
revelation of God and faith in Jesus Christ”12.
Benedict
XVI, by developing a concept that is dealt with in the Decree Ad Gentes and in Paul VI’s and John Paul
II’s magisterium, clarifies the meaning of the decision of the new ministry.
- «all churches located in
traditionally Christian territories need a renewed support of their missions»;
- «the diversity of situations calls
for a careful discernment; talking of “new evangelization” does not mean, in
fact, having to create a single formula which is the same for all
circumstances».
The few
articles of this Act are consequential. Article 1§ 2 states: “The Council
pursues its objective both by stimulating the reflection on the themes of the
new evangelization, and by identifying and promoting the ways and the means to
achieve it". It is necessary to keep on examining the proposal of the
Council and of the Papal Magisterium by identifying at once the means to pursue
the New Evangelization.
The
fundamental innovation lies, it seems to us, in Article 2: «The action of the
Council [...] is at the service of the particular Churches, especially in those
territories of Christian tradition where the phenomenon of secularization is
more evident».
Considering
the times, the bishop of Rome thinks it necessary to offer the brothers in the
episcopate, in the churches of ancient Christian tradition, additional support.
The Pontifical Council aims to set up a fruitful relationship with the ancient
churches of Europe and of the "First world", to help the bishops,
with their people, the priests and the consecrated people, to strengthen the
missions. Both the territories, those dipending on the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples and the old Christian world, need a new announcement
of the Gospel.
Article 3
points out the themes of the consideration of the new Dicastery and its
partners and collaborators: the episcopal conferences, the particular Churches,
the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life. In 1622
Gregory XVI founded the Propaganda Fide,
«with the dual purpose to spread Christianity in those areas where it was not
known and to defend the heritage of faith in those places where heresy had
questioned the genuineness of faith»13.
The discovery
of the new world and the consequent focus on it led the Holy See to meet new
instances of mission. The foundation of the new Pontifical Council, considered
the changed circumstances of the Western world, comes into being in strict
analogy with the establishment of '600. Our St. Fidelis from Sigmaringen was
the first martyr of Propaganda Fide.
One wonders what will be, among the Institutes of consecrated life called to
cooperate in this new enterprise, the role of our Order. We had been asked to
think the Mission over in the letter from our General Minister, brother Mauro, Nel cuore dell’Ordine la missione
(November 29, 2009). The creation of the new Ministry, however, is a valuable
opportunity to reread our charisma, both apostolic and missionary, combining it
with the new structures that “Peter believes necessary” to proclaim the Gospel
in our time. The review of the Constitutions can not overlook this new focus of
the Church. We have already mentioned that the canon law should be the
translation of ecclesiology into a clear language, which is binding to rights
and obligations. The governance structures of the Order, the powers of the
central government and of territorial divisions, the same topography of our
houses, should be revised according to this missionary perspective that comes
from the Roman Pontiff, with a view that is in tune with the one of the Central
church.
2.
PARTICULAR AND UNIVERSAL": AN ECCLESIAL DIALECTIC
Canon 368
expresses in clear juridical terms the bright theology of the Council on the
relationship between particular Churches and universal Church14. The holy Council helped us to
comprehend the task of particular Churches, that turn out to be the icons of
Trinity15, in the report about God’s Word and
the sacraments of the holy people of God with His bishop and presbytery. The
Trinity, however, is also revealed in the ecclesial perichoresis between particular Churches and universal Church. The
mystery of the Son’s “Trinitarian Exile”, who comes to the kenosis “in exile” from the holy city, outside Jerusalem’s walls,
is repeated in the institutes of consecrated life and in particular churches
that send men and women, religious men and religious women, the clergy and the
laity, to extend the Incarnation of the Word, with their kerygmatic announcement, in the world that the Father loves: be it
an African jungle, the “City” of London and the University of Paris or Berlin.
Excesses of Roman centralism or localism (be it episcopal, clerical or lay, of
which history has shown us examples) would be harmful. It is the relation
between particular churches and the "mother" Church that revitalizes the ontological communion. The pendulum of
the charitas is always swinging
between Rome and other churches and among particular churches. It does not swing
according to the physical isochronism of Galileo’s pendulum, but according to
the Trinitarian dynamics to overcome the love between the Father and the Son in
the Spirit, in the eternal novelty of the relation, in the ineffable geometries
of the divine impulses, which become ecclesial and missionary in the Spirit.
Thinking of the universal Church, as it is Peter’s task, Paul VI created
juridical structures that would serve the communion between the churches and
the mission. Think about the establishment that the doctrine called
“aggregation”16. This innovation has
paved the way for a new era of missionary expansion after the Council, with the
new and consoling sign of many diocesan clerics, protagonists as "Fidei Donum".
This
opposition concerns the religious orders too, both in relation to the bishops
and particular churches, and in the government relations within the
institutions.
At the
origins of our charism, while Europe began to develop, to build, to trade,
after the sunset of the millenarianist anxieties, the Holy See blessed the gift
of the Spirit to Francis with appropriate juridical forms. After the Fourth
Lateran Council the right to preach was extended by the bishops to "viri idonei" (eligible men), who
had been confirmed for preaching. The Friars Minor and the Preachers provided
Innocent III with the men he needed for the "Reformatio Ecclesiae". Along with a new support of preaching,
the Council established the principle about the annual confession and the
Easter participation in the Eucharist for all the believers. The priests of the
mendicant orders, beside the preaching ministry, established the ministry of
the sacramental listening to the confession. Although they had to receive
permission from the diocesan bishop to preach in his area17, the Friars Minor enjoyed greater
independence on the authority of diocesan bishops, which was aimed at the
mobility for the universal mission. The current Code not only retains the
"privilegium exemptionis"
for the ancient institutions that possessed it, but allows the Roman Pontiff to
grant other institutions with the exemption, which is aimed at “a common
advantage”18. The purpose is to have
people available for the universal mission. If all bishops are called, as
members of the College, to feel the “Solicitude for all Churches”, this is
exactly the “proprium” of the
Ministry of the Bishop of Rome19.
Sometimes difficulties emerge in the relations between the diocesan bishop and
the religious orders of Pontifical Right20
as regards the missions, outside the boundaries of the particular Church, of
religious people who have the canonical residence in it. The Cardinal of Ostia,
Ugolino, a friend of Francis and of the Order, said his doubts to the saint
about sending a lot of friars to distant and perilous lands. Francis replied:
«Sir, do you believe that God has aroused the friars only for these regions?»
and explained that it was their task, in virtue of Christ, to deal with both
Christian and non Christian countries21.
On adapting Francis’s sensitivity to our times would lead us to say: «God sent
the brothers on a Mission not only to distant countries, but also to the
European and western cities, to bring them back to Him!».
The
foundation of the territorial divisions of the Order of the Friars Minor, and of
its different historical branches, as well as the three current branches and
the TOR, formed the juridical and canonical structure of the Franciscan
charismatic presence. The Church was advancing and the Friars were going about
to spread the Gospel, and the number of vocations and homes was growing.
Custody, Vice Provinces and Provinces still come into being today as a result
of the missionary expansion. The Implantatio
Ordinis is simultaneous to the Implantatio
Ecclesiae22.
Once the
Provinces have been structured, the relation with the General Minister and its
Council grants, in our own legislation, a lot of freedom. The tradition of a
close relation of the Order with the Roman Pontiff and the Holy See
corresponds, within our scope, to a great freedom of Provinces and of their
ministers. The Friars who must hold offices in the central structures of the
Order are, rather than being “chosen”, according to the regulatory text (Const.
128.2), required by the General Minister for the different provincial Ministers.
According to the rule, the Minister General’s authority on each Friar would
seem predictable. But the practice is much easier. Whenever the Minister
General needs some friars for any service, he must ask a provincial Minister
for that. As regards the internal structure of the Order, the autonomy of the
territorial divisions seems to prevail over the needs of the central
coordination. The question is, whether in times of concentration of the world
and of a global vision, the tradition should not be updated and diverted into a
different direction.
3.
EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION: CANONICAL DISPARITIES
The Implantatio Ordinis comes into being with the building of homes,
where the friars live and where they welcome, with Franciscan benevolence,
anyone who knocks on their door. Their apostolate starts here. Once a Province has
been constituted (Const. 119.1), the decision to build a canonically new house
is made by the provincial Minister and his definitors (Const. 120.2), after
receiving the favourable vote of the provincial Chapter.
The juridical framework
is not specular in the opposite case, when the aim is to close down a house. In
this case, in fact, the final decision lies with the General Minister and his
definitors (Const. 112.2) [120.4]. The origin of this “canonical disparity” is
easily understandable. The Order that supports and simplifies the procedures of
expansion means to give it careful consideration before reducing its
missionaries. Such an attitude is evident – mutatis
mutandis – in other situations as well. The provincial Minister admits a
brother to the perpetual profession (Const. 20.2), but the dispensation of
votes lies with the Apostolic See, which assesses the vote of the General
Minister and his definitors (Const. 36.4; can. 691). The Church requires the
utmost caution before … withdrawing.
In times of vocational
abundance, when the Gospel is being spread, equipment and missionaries grow and
expand to distant places to serve the Gospel. In Europe and in the third
millennium West, the general government of the Order is called to handle the
review and the reduction of our missionaries, to deal with the decline of the
Gospel in those lands with ancient Christian roots.
In France, in Spain, in
Germany, in the Netherlands and in Italy a process of unification is coming
into being, such as the merging of territorial divisions, where the canonical
role of the General Minister and his council is cogent.
At the same time, a
growing sensitivity in the Order on the “solidarity of personnel” is more and
more evident. From the provinces abounding in vocations, which are usually
outside the area of the “First World”, friars leave both to serve temporarily,
such as the precious help in the pastoral of the sacrament of the
reconciliation in San Giovanni Rotondo and in Pietrelcina, and to serve for a
longer time in other provinces, lacking in personnel. It is easy to meet Indian
friars in the fraternities of France, Polish or Indian brothers in Toronto or
Africans in Quebec. Not to mention Central Africa, where most of the missionary
staff come from outside the continent23.
4. HOUSES DEPENDING ON THE GENERAL
MINISTER: AN EVOLUTIVE INTERPRETATION
Article 118.9 of the Constitutions
states that there should be houses which immediately depend on the General
Minister24. The latter, in virtue
of his definitors’ consent, can establish that certain houses depend on him.
Each of these houses may have a particular statute. Nothing is mentioned about
the possible reasons of such a choice. The traditional praxis has entrusted the
direct responsibility of the General Minister with some Roman houses, which
offer a service to the whole Order: the headquarter of the general Curia, San Lorenzo da Brindisi College, the
house of reception in Via Cairoli, the convents of Garbatella and Frascati,
aimed at training. To these locations, outside Rome, is added the house in
Jerusalem.
This rule has been used so far by
thinking of the central structure of the Order. The changed ecclesial
framework, decreed by the motu proprio of
the Pope Ubicumque et semper,
suggests other possible applications in terms of evangelization. The generale
experience of Positive right, in every juridical system, often utilizes rules,
that had been used feebly in the past, or totally forgotten, in a more
effective way, suggested by the changing times. Such an interpretation,
stressing the aspect of change, is called “evolutive interpretation”25.
The Constitutions (120.2) require a
provincial Minister, who means to close a house of the Order, to contact the
General Minister and his definitors. What is the meaning of the rule? It is
that the highest authority of the Order gives its own positive or negative
opinion. If it were unable to oppose it, the rule would not make any sense. In
that case, it would be sufficient to turn it into a “request for an advisory
opinion”. It is not like this. The General Minister and his board are asked to
judge the situation, case by case, to examine the problems of that territorial
division, to assess the reasons, to decide for or against its deletion. The
same provision states that the General Minister and his definitors can close
down a house “for other reasons”, without the request of the party that is
involved. It is clear that the highest authority of the Order has power of
decision in the matter.
If the reason for the request for
closing down is the lack in personnel or the inability of the province to
maintain a fraternity in that place, the General Minister should determine
whether the Order can compensate the lack in friars in loco by sending brothers from other provinces. The sharing of
personnel, as mentioned before, takes place, but, generally speaking, the
provinces decide which houses are to be kept and which houses are to be
abandoned. The instrument that is being affirmed is the agreement between the
province that receives helping friars and the province that sends them, with
the necessary determinations for a peaceful and fruitful coexistence. The
practice to suppress one or more houses seems to belong to different
competence. The General Minister and his definitory usually take note of the
request and “certify the death” of the house.
In the circular Nel cuore dell’ordine la missione, brother Mauro writes: «If at the
third CPO in Mattli it was said: “Be the Mission, wherever it takes place, in
the heart of the province” (III CPO 34c), today we should say: “Be the Mission
in the heart of the Order”» (n. 2.4). These words, if read in the new context
of the Mission given by the Holy Father, lead us to say that the suppression of
a house in any nation of the “First World”, cannot involve one province only,
but concerns the whole Order. If it is a matter of “Mission”, it must be “in the
heart of the Order”.
It seems possible, in this context,
to use n. 118.9 of the Constitutions for a new and creative application of the
principle of subsidiarity. If a province, due to lack of forces, is about to
leave a meaningful place, such as an important European or North American city,
the Order can constitute a fraternity which depends, for some years, on the
General Minister, and verify whether the sending of new and motivated forces,
with a programme of re-evangelization of the territory, can change the
situation. Such a simple proposal needs some corollaries for its
implementation.
- It would be good, with an adequate
awareness of all territorial divisions, to draw up a list of all the brothers
who are willing to experience a few years in an area to re-evangelize. The list
should contain the curriculum of each brother: spoken languages, experiences,
charisma.
- Upon receipt of the request for the
suppression of the house, the General Minister and his definitory having chosen
not to close it down, will propose in
primis the applying provincial Minister to receive the friars sent by him
to form the new fraternity, by giving up, therefore, the suppression of the
house. In case of acceptance, it would be possible to conclude a bilateral
agreement between the receiving province and the general Curia, aimed at
establishing and sharing the program of evangelization that the new fraternity
will implement. The house would remain under the jurisdiction of the provincial
Minister, unless the cooperation with the General Minister for the periodic
review of the program of evangelization comes into being.
- In case of unavailability of the
provincial Minister and his definitory, the General Minister, together with his
definitory, will establish that the house depends on his authority, both
permanently and temporarily. In both cases the general government will be
always able to decree the abolition of the house, or may reassign it to the
mother province, in case it requires that, owing to the changed situations.
Assuming that the house
is placed under the direct authority of the General Minister, it will be good,
according to possibilities stated by n. 118.9, to provide it with a statute. In
particular, it is important to regulate the possibility to welcome vocations to
our lives and to determine the places of training, which will be the same ones
that belong to the province, or others, if the General Minister thinks it
proper. The brothers will be, ordinarily, pupils of that province. The possible
growth of vocations can suggest and facilitate the return of that house to the
province of origin. The statute should also plan periodical checks of the
General Minister and of his definitory on the progress of the house and on the
result of the programs of re-evangelization of the area.
The latest draft of revision of the
constitutions released by the general Curia added to n. 118.9 the following
text: «[The General Minister] similarly may determine that some local
fraternity depends on the Conference of the major superiors and that it has a
statute of its own». We accept this hypothesis. If it were approved and
promulgated, this innovation would fit into the process that the motu proprio promotes. Article 3.2°, in
fact, includes the cooperation between the new Dicastery and the Episcopal
conferences. From a perspective that considers the Order more cohesive, in
times of “evangelical recession” in wide areas of the west, the support from
the superiors to the local jurisdiction must be evaluated, case by case, by the
General Minister and his definitors, and can be entrusted to the Conference of
provincial ministers, under similar circumstances, as the ones described
before. It is important to use the juridical instrument of n. 118.9 with
flexibility, adapting it to practical situations. As the Pope says:
This variety of situations demands careful
discernment; to speak of a “new evangelization” does not in fact mean that a
single formula should be developed that would hold the same for all
circumstances. And yet it is not difficult to see that what all the Churches
living in traditionally Christian territories need is a renewed missionary
impulse, an expression of a new, generous openness to the gift of grace.
Another
important consideration is about the Ofs. The Cemiofs (missionary centre
ofs), founded as a “franciscan madness” of a young couple of Ofs from
Sicily, Umberto and Salvatrice Virgadaula, at the end of my ministry of spiritual
assistance to Ofs in Italy, is now a well-known reality, which involves the Ofs
in Italy, and is known abroad too26. There
are permanent Missions of families abroad, belonging to the Ofs, that,
supported by the secular fraternity, work and witness the gospel: they are real
laic Franciscan missionaries27. It
would be important to take into account, together with the Ofs, the possibility
to connect some missionary families to a capuchin fraternity, which depends on
the General Minister, thus establishing together the program of
re-evangelization of the concerned area.
5. THINKING IN BOUAR
ABOUT ROME
These pages, while
assembled and completed in Apulia, were conceived in Bouar - Etude Saint
Laurent (Central African Republic), where the Capuchin Order trains the young
African friars by employing teachers coming from different Italian provinces,
from Poland, Quebec, France, Lebanon. The ecumenical environment stimulates
every teacher to search for new languages. Explaining the “juridical person”,
for example, with its refined abstractions dating back to Roman jurists,
requires an effort of cultural “translation” into the logical “terrestrial”
categories of the African genius. In his motu
proprio, Benedict XVI exhorts to
«examine and foster the use of modern forms of communications, as means for the
new evangelization». The basis of communication is language. In his ponderous
work on secularization, Charles Taylor calls for the use of “subtler
languages”, inspired by art and aesthetics28.
Francis spoke in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, in 1222, when the young Thomas
from Spalato, a student of law in the city, was enchanted by his speeches. With
him, a crowd of people from Bologna, both common and learned people, were all
enchanted by the passion of the little friar, who, by means of inspired
semantics, anointed God’s people with kerygma,
"ploughed" the hardened hearts with the “ploughshare” of the Word of
God, which had been taken “out of the sanctuary”, into men’s porch29.
Francis speaks like a concionator, a secular orator. His
language is not clerical, but evangelical, infused with the Sacred Scripture,
as symbols of nature, which he contemplates. Innocent III had called for the Reformatio Ecclesiae in the Fourth
Lateran Council, 1215, and Francis and Anthony of Padua, the Friars Minor and
the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) were the best interpreters of the signs of
time, the faithful servants of Christ’s vicar.
Francis’s children have
the charisma of the founder. Being naturally observant of the warnings of the
Bishop of Rome, they just have to get reorganized to promote the new
evangelization. From this point of view, even the Curial records about the
suppression of convents can be turned into Mission projects, into projects of conversion
of the friars into the new languages of the Gospel. The inshore waters have
been exhausted. It is necessary to “make an offing” and “to cast the nets”.
Even an apparently apathetic and bureaucratic rule can serve as a “springboard”
for a new evangelical impulse.
Summary
With the pronunciation
of his “motu
proprio”, Ubicumque et semper, Benedict XVI has established the
Pontifical Counsel for the Promotion of New Evangelization, thus giving
juridical expression to the iter to be adopted, valid for all local churches,
in conformity with the theology defined by his predecessor, John Paul II. The
Mission given to the Church is undergoing a moment of deep change. We are no
longer looking only in the direction of far-away lands as Mission territory, but
rather at the cities of Europe and of the West - the traditional churches -
which have to be revisited for a new annunciation of the Good News. In this
selfsame moment, when the Capuchin Minister General has decreed that Mission is
at the very heart of the Order, and whilst we are immersed in the task of
reviewing and updating our own Constitutions, this initiative by the Pope
stimulates us to redefine a new relationship between the central governing body
and the territorial divisions of the West, which often suffer from a lack of
vocations, thus making it necessary to close down convent after convent. “The
convents which come under the authority of the Minister General” (Cost. 118.9),
viewed from a juridical position in their process of development, could well
constitute an appropriate structure for the re-evangelizing of the “first
world” countries. Since co-operation between the central governing body and the
territorial divisions of the Order bear similarity to the new structure founded
by the Pope in relation to the local churches, they could thus intelligently
put into practice the principle of complementarity, favouring global vision as
regards a new evangelisation of the world.
© Antonio Belpiede 2011
1 The Vatican Ecumenical Council II states, in the Decree Ad Gentes, on the Missionary Activity of
the Church, n. 6: «Missions [...] are mostly exercised in certain territories
recognized by the Holy See. The specific purpose of this missionary activity is
the evangelization and the establishment of the Church among those peoples and
groups where it has not been established yet» (my italics).
2 The Decree Christus Dominus places it first among
the duties of Bishops (N. 13 - 14); The Sacred Congregation for the Clergy
published, in 1971, the Direttorio
catechistico generale, as a result of the implementation of n. 44 of the
Decree Christus Dominus; John Paul II
dedicated one of his first documents of his pontificate to it, the Apostolic
Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae, of
16 October 1979; The Codice di diritto
canonico devotes a chapter of the third book to catechesis (Canons 773-780), the Funzione d’insegnamento della Chiesa, and other scattered rules:
the one of the can. 226 § 2 is very important, which is about the duty of
Christian parents to educate their children «according to the doctrine taught
by the Church».
3 The Apostolic Constitution of John Paul II on the Roman Curia, Pastor Bonus (28 June 1988), indicates
with nn. 75-76 the Responsibilities of the Congregation for Bishops about the
particular Churches, and with n. 89 the ones of the Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples as regards the particular Churches of the “Mission territories”.
Beyond the Dioceses, other particular churches in Mission territories are the
Vicariates and the apostolic prefectures and the firmly established apostolic
Administrations: cf. Can. 368.
4 My italics.
5 Can. 782 § 1 states: « The Roman Pontiff and the college of bishops
have the supreme direction and coordination of endeavors and actions which
belong to missionary work and missionary cooperation». Arrieta regularly
distinguishes the “the high office to propagate the Christian name” (LG, 23),
which is the specific task of the Roman Pontiff, from the “universal sollicitudo pro Ecclesia that the
Vatican II recognizes for all the bishops”. The Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples (Pastor Bonus, nn. 85-92) expresses this particular responsibility
of the Bishop of Rome. The bishops of the dioceses of the Mission territories receive
cooperation from the central government of the Church through this Congregation,
and not, such as those of the oldest areas of evangelization, from the congregation
for Bishops. The vicars, the prefects and the apostolic administrators (can.
371) act as vicarious representatives of the Supreme Pontiff, who is pastor of
these special territorial divisions. J.
I. ARRIETA, Diritto dell’organizzazione
ecclesiastica, Milano 1997, 224.
6 In this regard, N. 6 of the Decree Ad Gentes is very clear.
7 AG 6 (my italics).
8 John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, Encyclical Letter on the validity of the
Missionary mandate, July 12, 1990, n. 33. Even here the source is the same as
n. 6 of Ad Gentes.
9 Ibid.
10 John Paul II, Christifideles Laici,
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Vocation
and Mission of the laity in the
church and in the world, December 30, 1988, n. 34.
11 John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges, January 25, 1983.
12 Cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, December 8, 1975,
nn. 15, 56.
13
http://mv.vatican.va/2_IT/pages/x-Schede/METs/METs_Main_06.html.
14 « Particular churches, in which and
from which the one and only Catholic Church exists, are first of all dioceses,
to which, unless it is otherwise evident, are likened a territorial prelature
and territorial abbacy, an apostolic vicariate and an apostolic prefecture, and
an apostolic administration erected in a stable manner » (Can. 368).
15 Reread the first chapter of Lumen Gentium that grabs the attentive
reader's heart and throws him into the Trinitarian mystery and into the Old and
New Testament, thus founding the Church in Christ “as a sacrament” (LG 1) and
as a “mystery which is similar to the incarnation of the Word” (cf. LG 8).
Among those that spread the term “icon
of the Trinity” in Italy, we should mention the theologian Forte (B. Forte, La chiesa icona della Trinità, breve
ecclesiologia, Brescia 1984).
16 Can. 271, whose source is the Motu
Proprio of Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiae
Sanctae, August 6, 1966.
17 The Regola bollata states in
chapter IX: “The friars should not preach in the diocese of a bishop, if the
latter has forbidden them to do so”: FF 98. Cf G. Cardaropoli,
«Predicazione», in Dizionario Antoniano,
edited by E. Caroli, Padova 2002,
615-634. As regards the
Lateran Council IV, cf. Conciliorum
Oecumenicorum Decreta, Bologna 1973, 239-240.
18 Cf. can. 4, can. 591.
19 Cf. Supra, note 5.
20 Can. 589.
21 Specchio di
perfezione: FF 1758.
22 To understand the connection
between Mission and settlements of the first epoch, it is useful to read the
work by L. Pellegrini, Insediamenti
francescani dell’Italia dei secoli XIII-XIV (1220-1340), Rome 1983, with a geographical
map of the settlements.
23 In his letter on the Mission, the
General Minister mentions «among the least visible issues that have a direct
impact on our way to be missionaries [...] the new solidarity that from the
South, where the fraternity is more widespread, reaches the northern
hemisphere, where the presence of charisma, after a long tradition, is fading
away»: nel cuore dell’Ordine la Missione,
Circular Letter to all the friars of the Mission, November 29th 2009, 1.10.
This solidarity that comes from “the south of the Order” is not always easily
accepted. The phrases heard in some Western Provinces lacking in missionaries,
such as “Let us die in peace”, show a vision of the Church and of the Order
which belongs to the sphere of private law and to a theology which reminds a
“capuchin and ecclesial euthanasia”.
24 “The General Minister with the
consent of the definitory can decide that a particular local fraternity or
house is immediately dependent on himself. If the situation warrants it, it may
have its own statutes” (Const. 118.9).
25 «The evolutive interpretation tends
to adapt old rules to new situations that the legislator had not foreseen and,
therefore, if permitted, can not be argued with reference to the will of the legislator. The most appropriate
topic is the “nature of things”, an interpretation that changes when the circumstances
in which it is applied change»; cf. D. Amoroso, L’interpretazione evolutiva della legge e delle disposizioni
costituzionali, in www.giuri.unige.it / corsistudio / dottdiritto /
documents / Amoroso.doc.
26 The missionary center of the Secular
Franciscan Order (Ce.Mi.OFS) was established on September 20, 1998 (cf.:
http://www.ofs.it/content/cemiofs). Actually, before this legal act, there was
a “charismatic” step. On October 1997, Umberto and Salvatrice Virgadaula came
from Sicily to Foggia to meet the national president of the Ofs at our convent
of the Immaculate, Mario Cusenza, and me, as the national assistant. We were
both impressed by the evangelical freshness of this young couple’s proposal and
thought to involve the most solid Ofs fraternity that we knew in Italy, the one
of Borgo San Lorenzo, in Mugello, which provided the couple with accommodation
and a job, thus supporting the couple in its moving from Sicily and to begin
... the Mission.
27 The Cemiofs arranges missionary initiatives
as regards education and care for the poor in Venezuela, with the projects “Pequeño
Lapis” and “Seminilla”; in Romania, with the project “Prietenie”; in Cameroon, with the
project “Shisong”. Other projects are under
consideration for Albania, Venezuela,
Cameroon. Cf. Fides web site: http ://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=22548&lan=ita.
The official website of the Italian Ofs provides general information about the
Cemiofs and its educational activities: http://www.ofs.it/content/cemiofs.
28 C. Taylor, L’età secolare, Feltrinelli, Milano 2009, 443-456, original ed., A Secular Age, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
London, England 2007.
29 Thomas from Spalato says: «This was
the beginning of his sermon: “The angels, men,demons”. He spoke so well and
clearly of these three kinds of rational spirits, that manylearned people, who
were present there, were astonished by the speech of such an illiterate man.Yet,
he did not have the style of a preacher, but had almost the style of a
haranguer [a secular orator]. Actually, the whole substance of his words had
the purpose to cancel enmities and to lay the foundations of new terms of
peace» (FF 2252).
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