09301974 Paulo VI General Chapter OFMcap

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Pope Paulo VI, Address to the participants in the Special General Chapter of the Friars Minor Capuchin (September 30, 1974)

On September 30, 1974, the Pope received about two hundred capitulars from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. The Holy Father responded to the words of his General Minister with the following speech translated from Latin, filled with affection towards the Capuchins. 

Some introductory points.

The first is that you must forgive us for the delay, as the Synod session has occupied us so far.

The second wants to be a desire for spontaneity. The beautiful, clear, perfect word of your Minister General, who spoke in Italian, would be a temptation for Us to express ourselves in the same way if you understood us. And this really says what your visit is. It fills our hearts with so many memories...!

Tonight I have been remembering the moments, the places, the people who have linked my life, long and consumed, to people, religious, places of your Order.

I want to tell you something that Fr. General may not even remember: Where did Bto. Innocent of Berzo? Since we were young (and therefore a long time ago), laboriously climbing the heights of Valcamonica to reach the small valley of Osimo, in Borno, we always stopped at the convent of La Anunciada. We still remember the beautiful fresco by Pietro de Cemmo (we assume it will still be there).

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Another thing that moves my heart as a man. You are the custodians of the cemetery where all my relatives, my parents, my relatives, etc. are buried. And I know that the friars take intentional, well, pious care of their tombs, there in Brescia, in the monumental cemetery that is in front of the church of the Sacred Heart, where we went so many times in the winter, little by little, when it was small, with our father, who went there to confess to the Capuchin priests of the cemetery and where there were some frescoes in the church, at that time relatively new, and some other paintings that seemed magnificent to me at the time, because they were recent and executed with great simplicity by a simple painter, who was called Epis. Criticism, both from the Fathers and from public opinion, referred to those words of St. Paul: «Qui Epis... scopatum desiderat...». I say this, as a joke, because they are simple paintings of that time, but to me, a young man, they gave me the vision of the things they wanted to mean.

And so many other memories... But, let's leave it!

I also remember something else. He was still just a priest. Traveling, on a certain occasion, in search of another colleague who was in Munich at that time, I went to the Nunciature, because I knew that Msgr. Pacelli, already known by fame, resided there; but at the time he was outside. So, what to do in an unknown city? Where to sleep? Where to rest? And without knowing the German language well! And then - I remember - a good Sister, who must have been Sister Pascualina, told me: «The friars..., the friars...!». He telephoned and sent me as a guest to the Capuchin Fathers in Munich, where I slept very well in one of your very narrow beds.

What I want to point out to you is that this audience, this meeting, is very dear to me. Can you tell me: But doesn't the Pope have so many audiences? It is true; but this one has a fullness of meaning, of value, that fills our hearts and that really deserves an apology, a very long speech, an opening of hearts, a vision of the world that I contemplate behind you, in your Capuchin figure: the poor Christ who still has access to those people to whom others no longer approach, the people of the town, the workers. "If a Capuchin comes, then we will confess." And what does this mean? Confidence, the confidence of the people. You, what do you represent? And know that the Church highly values, as they say today, your authenticity. People have great sympathy for you, because they see ease of conversation and dialogue, which later translates into a return to religious life, to sacramental life, to the grace of God.

Finally, and thus ends the introduction: I see our Apostolic Preacher there. Know that his sermons are university lectures, but sermons. The call to ascetic, religious, spiritual principles from time to time gives us a resurgence of spiritual energy in the heart. We thank him publicly, because he is your brother and is a reason for our esteem and our recognition of your entire Family.

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Dearest children:

Our cordial greetings to you who, gathered in the General Chapter of your Order, have come not only to offer your respects, as most faithful sons, to the Vicar of Christ, but also to implore our blessing for you and for the work of your Chapter. We do it with great pleasure, because it is a matter that, even though it is of interest primarily to the Capuchin family, also affects the life of the Church, which receives from the flourishing condition of religious institutes a large part of its vitality, of his apostolic zeal, of his desire to attain holiness.

And this would already be an argument to make a speech with a great cover. That is to say: you humbly lower your head and exclaim: But we are poor friars! I tell you that you are PROPHETS, that you are heralds of the Gospel, that you have a great resonance in the Church, and you must have it precisely because of your desire to represent Saint Francis, who, in turn, had the desire to strictly represent in the dress, in the figure and in the spirit to our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore you are for Us a precious treasure that deserves our esteem, our encouragement and also our trust. Continue to be what you have been until now for the Church of God.

Seeing you here today, coming to Rome from all regions of the earth, makes us present in our minds that vast evangelical harvest that is due everywhere to the work of your brothers. How many reasons to give thanks to God and to congratulate ourselves with you!

The General Chapter is an excellent opportunity - offered to each of the institutes - to reconsider its true nature, its purpose and the mission it has to fulfill in the Church, and also to make decisions capable of revitalizing the life of the brothers .

And we will make another marginal gloss. You know that we are dealing with this same issue below, with the bishops, in the Episcopal Synod. We must reflect on ourselves, we must become aware of what we are. We should not do any other meditation than that of the mission... This act of reflection, of examination of conscience, of finding ourselves in the constitutional origins... for your Family that has been your General Chapter.

This demands that you carefully study the origin of your Family.

It is not archaeology. It is going back to the roots. Because, as Vatican II teaches, the true renewal of any religious family “consists essentially in increasing fidelity to its vocation”. Be cappuccinos. Be what you are.

But it is not enough to consider the past age. It is also necessary to look to the future. And so one can ask: taking into account the changing conditions of the times, is the religious discipline of the Capuchins still valid to respond to the hopes of the Church?

A doubt can be born in you, the doubt about yourselves: «But, are we of our time or not? I can gladly give you a great answer: Yes, yes, brothers. You are modern, you are current, you are for the future, you have the guarantee of your past history, which promises for the future.

With what means or decisions will your Order count so that it can flourish with a new fruitfulness of life?

About this, last month we sent you a Letter, in which we expressed our thoughts. With great joy we have learned that you have religiously accepted it as a norm and guide for your work. Now, confirming and amplifying what we have told you, we want to add something that, although it is not new or unknown to you, nevertheless serves to fully reveal to you our paternal concern for your Order.

First of all, let us once again remind you of the need to preserve and excite in you that contemplative spirit which shone so clearly in the first age of the Franciscans. This requires, according to the Council, that even in the promotion of external works, spiritual renewal always occupies the first place (PC 2).

And now another marginal gloss: by making this recommendation to you, we are making it to ourselves. And in this we do not want to appear so much as a teacher of spiritual life, but as an admirer of the example you give us, eager to learn from you how the Franciscan Gospel is lived textually, interiorly and intensely.

From this source once sprang the fruitfulness of your Order; Also from here it will be convenient to draw, in the future, new energies with which your discipline achieves the desired abundance of forces. By chance, in this, Saint Francis is not an admirable example for you? Because for him prayer was a very safe port, not a momentary, empty or presumptuous prayer, but prolonged, full of devotion, full of humility; if he started it in the afternoon, he barely finished it in the morning; walking, sitting, eating or drinking, he was dedicated to prayer (1 Cel 71), in such a way that he seemed, more than a man in prayer, the living prayer (2 Cel 95).

The example of the Seraphic Father should also impel you vehemently to the love of the cross. This cannot be separated from your vocation. The stigmata that he received from Christ in his body on Mount Alverna are like a perennial preaching, which tells us that it is the first condition for following Christ. Hence the need for austerity of life or penance, which has always been very important among the Franciscans, and which today the Church, more than ever, demands of you.

Brothers, we need your example. We need to see that the cross is alive in your life, in your example, in your arduous and difficult way of life, which you have chosen. It is the cross!

For we live in a society saturated with hedonism, materialism, the desire for consumption, and, unfortunately, also among many Christians a religious life has been introduced that is too indulgent in comfort, without effort, without duties, without self-sacrifice, that is, no cross. You, on the other hand, never fail to fulfill in your life that sentence of Jesus Christ that Saint Francis, in an admirable way, made his own: «Truly, truly, I say to you: if the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it remains sterile; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24-25).

This love of the cross appears in a special way in evangelical poverty, which Saint Francis left his children as a sacred inheritance and is a very peculiar note of your Order.

And precisely because of this, because you are like that, the sympathy and admiration of the world follow you. The world would not know - I will say - to insult you or laugh at you. Nope! He is a Capuchin, he is a Franciscan friar. And because? There is an irradiation, you know, of your humility, of your poverty. You are "the blessed poor in spirit" of the first Beatitude.

Isn't this why the Capuchins were always very accepted by the Christian people, accustomed to seeing them always simple, humble, happy, always ready to alleviate the needs of others, especially the poor, the sick, the sinners? Men do not ask you to ambiguously conform to the world; they ask you to demonstrate the loftiness of this poor life, contemplating which they feel the hope of the future life. Be, then, in the world, the custodians of this hope!

But in addition to the poverty that must be proper to each one, the poverty that must shine throughout your institute should not be neglected. Therefore, in the use of goods, in buildings and in any of your works, your Order should avoid excessively elaborate ornamentation and adornment and anything that has a taste of luxury and profit. May there be nothing in you that can obscure the image of Christ Jesus, who "became poor for us, although he was rich, so that we might be rich through his poverty" (cf. 1 Cor 8:9).

Our beloved Capuchin Friars Minor!

You who have already embellished the Church with the holiness of your brothers and who with your apostolic activity have brought to so many souls the light of divine grace, now, on the occasion of this General Chapter, animated as by a new impulse, persevere in your noble resolutions. and, if necessary, redouble your forces and duplicate your efforts so that the Church of God, as in other times, also now and in the future, receives from you the maximum benefits.

And all the works you do must be present in our spirit - and you know they are. The parishes that have been entrusted to you; the good you do to so many religious communities; the activity of studies, because this is not contrary to your tradition; and above all, the apostolate with the poor, with the humble, with the people; the apostolate in that form of preaching that has found in your children voices so resounding that their echo is still heard. Be truly brave, good, humble announcers of the Word of God. And I would like to add: "Do not worry about what you are going to say or how you are going to say it: at that moment what you have to say will be suggested to you" (Mt 10,19). You will be able to speak with an open heart, if you have a heart full of Christ and full of his holy and brilliant radiance. The word will spring from your very life and will be the most effective form of persuasion.

In paternal confirmation of all this, with love we give the Apostolic Blessing to you, present here, and to all your brothers.

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