Chapter continues work on proposals
Slow-going as delegates consider the work of Commissions
DOMUS PACIS, ASSISI - The last full day of work at the General Chapter found the delegates working diligently to make their way through all of the proposals before them.
The work, initially, was slow-going because the first consideration of proposals requires a two-thirds vote to either be definitively passed or rejected. Very few proposals reached that threshold on their first pass. During the second consideration, they only require a simple majority either way.
Votation: Proposed Changes to Statutes (Continued)
In the first session, delegates took up the remaining items regarding proposed changes to the General Statutes. Most of the remaining proposed changes were definitively rejected by
Chapter Capitulars in accord with the recommendation of the commission who considered these proposals. These included:
- To Article 204 to make the term of office of the President of a Conference standardized at three years. The recommendation was to continue to allow Conferences to make their own decision in their particular statutes.
- To Article 228 to deny active and passive voice to friars living outside of the ordinary structures of Franciscan life for more than a year. It was the sense of the Commission to handle such situations individually rather than making a general law that would effect everyone in these situations.
- A proposal of the 2013 Plenary Council that the re-election of the General Minister to a second six-year term require a two-thirds vote. This would affect Article 196. It was recommended to maintain the current legislation.
- A proposal of the 2013 Plenary Council dealing with the vacancy of office of the General Minister. If the vacancy occurs within the first three years, it would be according to the current norms for a new election. If during the second three years, the Vicar General would simply complete the existing term of office. The recommendation was to leave the current legislation as it is.
- To Article 132 concerning entities and houses dependent upon the General Minister. It was felt this was a matter better handled by the General Administration and a potential commission to study the issue rather than a matter for legislation.
- To Article 200 regarding the composition of a Conference and the minimum numbers of entities needed to form a Conference. The recommendation was for a broader study of the issue in light of reconfiguration taking place throughout the Order before changes to legislation are made.
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| General Secretary Aidan McGrath, OFM (Ireland) presenting the changes to the General Statutes. |
Some of the proposals did not receive enough votes to be definitively decided either way and the Chapter will return to them tomorrow. These were:
- To Article 182 which would make the second term of a Provincial Minister six years, instead of three, with a two-thirds majority vote on the first ballot.
- To Article 183 to equate the term of office of a Custos with that of a Provincial Minister.Currently, a Custos serves only three year terms.
- To Article 221 regarding changes to those present at the General Chapter - Custoses of Dependent Custodies, additional delegates from larger Provinces, and additional lay brother delegates. This will be revisited tomorrow.
PROPOSALS FROM THE COMMISSIONS
The Chapter delegates then returned to the proposals that had been presented by the various Commissions. The following proposals were definitively approved:
- Study Centers. The Administration should promote the Franciscan intellectual tradition and encourage collaboration between Franciscan study centers.
- Hermitages or Houses of Prayer. That the General Administration encourage the establishment of houses of prayer in each Conference.This is essentially an affirmation of what already exists in the legislation of the Order.
- International Economic Affiars Committee. The General Definitorium establish an international economic affairs committee (SSGG 160), composed of experienced friars and lay professionals, The committee will make annual reports to the General Definitorium and at the annual meeting of the Conference Presidents.
- Strategies for Resolving the General Curia's debt. The task of the International Economic Affairs Committee is to present a debt crisis solution plan to the General Curia by December 1, 2015, which may include:
- the refinancing of the lines of credit with a secured external debt;
- the refinancing external lines of credit with an internal debt held by Entities of the Order;
- the sale of properties that are not essential to the Order's purpose and mission.
- Annual Audit of General Curia Finances. The General Definitorium commission an annual independent audit of the financial operations and the financial structures of the General Curia.
- Legal Representative/Economo General. The General Chapter mandates the General Definitorium to insert in the General Statutes the norm of establishing a distinction and separation between the positions of Legal Representative and General Treasurer (Economo).
- New Presences/Forms of Evangelilzation. The government of the Order and other Entities looking for a renewed and prophetic Franciscan life should promote a movement of the Order (at all levels) experiences and going-forth movements to the poor and to the peripheries (geographic and existential), with New Forms and Fraternities of presence and evangelization.
- Guidelines for Missionary Evangelization. The General Definitorium will develop Guidelines starting with the proposals contained in the Report of the General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization to the General Chapter.
- Formation of Missionaries. The General Definitorium will continue the initial and ongoing formation of missionaries in the Our Lady of the Nations community in Brussels and along with the UCLAF, prepare a similar course in Latin America.
- Vicariates Entrusted to the Order. The General Definitorium in dialog with the Holy See, continue to sustain the Vicariates entrusted to the Order.
- Support the General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization. The General Chapter established that the obligation of all Entities to financially support the General Secretariat for Missionary Evangelization. This needs to be satisfied by a contribution of the Entities based on the modality of current ranges used by the Order for the 'solidarity contribution'.
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| Provincial Minister John Puodziunas, OFM (ABVM) acted as Moderator today. |
The following proposals did not receive enough votes to be definitively decided either way and will be taken up at a second votation tomorrow:
- On Mixed Institutes. Promoting the equality of all the friars, lay and ordained.
- On Mixed Institutes. To send to the Holy See a new request to be classified as a mixed institute.
- Fraternal Relationships. The Minister Provincial and his Definitory, the Custos and his council, with the Guardians program and evaluate annualy the task of animating the Fraternities in the essential aspects.
- Relationship with Creation. Every fraternity should develop an ecological plan for the care of creation that includes recycling and reducing (electricity, water, etc.).
- Pastoral Care of Vocations. The General Definitorium promotes the culture and pastoral care of vocations and formation in the universal brotherhood.
- Fidelity and Perseverance. The General Definitorium will continue to appoint an International Commission for the Service of Fidelity and Perseverance.
- Revision of the Ratio Formationis. A proposal for a complete revision of the ratio for initial and ongoing formation.
- International, Interprovincial and Intercultural Formation and Mission. To foster interprovincial, international and intercultural houses and formative experiences as well as accompany missionary experiences in international projects of the Order's mission.
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Guidebook for Life with the Poor. The General Definitorium will prepare a handbook to assist Provincial Ministers, Custos and all the Friars to animate and regularly evaluate honestly, concretely and authentically how we live as poor and lesser ones among the poor to ensure that all entities and their local fraternities become communities of presence and solidarity "with" and "in the" service of the poor.
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Formation Houses near the poor. The General Chapter strongly exhort every Entity to have at least one formation house "near the poor".
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Plenary Council. The General Chapter asks the General Minister to convene a Plenary Council of the Order no later than the end of 2018 for the purpose of reviewing the ethical, united and transparent use of finances throughout the Order, of evaluating the response to the 2014 economic crisis, and furthermore to suggest direction and policies for financial management and administration in a spirit of fraternity and minority.
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Guidebook on Integrity of Creation. The General Definitorium will develop a Guidebook on the integrity of creation.
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Ecumenical and Inter-religious Dialogue. The Entities of the Order, through the Secretariats for Mission and Evangelization or the JPIC Commissions will focus for the next three years the promotion and animation of ecumenical, inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue as a constitutive part of all levels of initial and ongoing formation.
The day ended with a review of the costs of the General Chapter by Vice Economo General Silvio Rogelio de la Fuente, OFM.
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| Provincial Minister Richard Grech, OFM (Malta)j during a break. |
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