02062001 Promulgation of the General Constitutions OFS

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PROMULGATION OF THE GENERAL CONSTITUTIONS

Circ. 21/96-02

Rome, 6th February 2001

To the National Councils of the OFS

To the International Councillors of the OFS

Subject: Promulgation of the amended General Constitutions approved by the Decree of

the Congregation for ICLSAL of the 8th December 2000

Dear brothers and sisters,

The General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order, intended to apply the renewed

Rule of 1978, were approved by the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and

Societies of Apostolic Life through the Decree of 8th September 1990 for a six-year trial

period. Before the end of this period, the Presidency of the International Council of the OFS,

through the Conference of General Ministers and TOR, asked for the trial period to be

extended, taking into account the time necessary to translate the Constitutions into the other

official languages of the International Fraternity and, then, into the languages of each

country. The Congregation granted a three-year extension.

During this period of time, the Constitutions have been studied and put into practice by OFS

Fraternities at all levels and, little by little, have marked them with the characteristics of the

Secularity, unity and autonomy of our Order. It has not all been easy and some aspects have

still to be assimilated fully so that, at the dawn of the third Millennium, “the OFS should

truly become a front-line force in the Church and in the world to build a more human and

Christian society” as Cardinal Hamer, Prefect of the Congregation for ICLSAL, anticipated

in 1990.

What emerged from the trial period was the substantial validity of the General Constitution

of 1990, and only some aspects required revision. The necessary work was begun by the

Presidency and developed through extensive consultation involving all the Fraternities and

International Councillors as well as the Presidency and some experts belonging to the OFS

or assigned by the Franciscan General Ministers.

In the General Chapter of Madrid (23-31st October 1999), a text was presented which brought

together the suggestions and proposals received and also made alternative proposals when

it was impossible to agree on a single formulation from among those put forward by the

National Fraternities. The text presented to the Chapter was inspired by the following

criteria:

- Observance of common law and the law proper to the OFS

- Due regard for the text already approved

- Flexibility of governance

- Adaptability in terms of culture and language.

The General Chapter carefully examined the text in depth, and took into account the oral

and written interventions made during the Chapter sessions.

The results of the discussions and the votes, cast on each of the amendments, was presented

on 21st December 1999 to the Conference of the Franciscan General Ministers who, after it

had been further reviewed by canonists of the four Curias, forwarded the text to the

Congregation for ICLSAL for approval. The Congregation approved the text by the Decree

dated 8th December 2000, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin

Mary.

And now, brothers and sisters of the OFS, on the 6th of February 2001, the approved General

Constitutions were approved and consequently will have to be observed from 6th March

2001. It is up to each of us to make sure that they become spirit and life, a tool by which our

Order will grow and be strengthened so that it casts out into the deep and goes forward with

hope according to the exhortation given by the Holy Father to all Christians with the

Apostolic Letter “Novo millennio inuente” at the end of the great Jubilee of 2000. We, Secular

Franciscans, are also called to be witnesses of Christ, in other words martyrs, in the original

sense of the word, in the new millennium.

It is not by chance that we chose 6th February as the date on which to promulgate the

amended General Constitutions. On this date we commemorate the Proto-Martyrs of Japan,

witnesses par excellence: 17 Franciscan Tertiaries crucified in Nagasaki, along with Peter

Baptist, Paul Miki and their other companions. We know very little about these distant

brothers of ours, apart from their unwavering will to remain firm in faith, to continue

witnessing to the gospel by their very lives, whatever the cost.

During the past century there have also been Secular Franciscans who have manifested

fidelity to baptism and resistance to evil, even to the point of sacrificing their lives. We

remember our brother Ceferino Giménez Malla, victim of the religious persecution during

the Spanish Civil War (1936-9), who was beatified on 4th May 1997. We remember the servant

of God Frantisek Nosek, a politician from Bohemia and a Secular Franciscan. We also

remember Juvénal Kabera, minister of the OFS Fraternity in Kigali who was murdered during

the massacres of the tribal war in Rwanda. These are only some examples but above all for

them the recent words of the Holy Father remain true: “It has been thanks especially to the

courageous witness of lay faithful, often to the point of martyrdom that the faith was not

wiped out from the lives of entire peoples”.

We may not be asked to give witness by shedding our blood, but we will certainly be asked

to give witness by being consistent and steadfast in fulfilling our baptismal promises,

renewed and affirmed through profession in the OFS. By virtue of our Profession, the Rule

and its application as found in the General Constitutions must represent for each of us a

point of reference in our daily lives, beginning with our specific calling and our clear

identity. On this foundation, we must build our lives anew and find a life plan (Franciscan

radicalism, based on the gospel) and a place of ecclesial communion (the Fraternity) in which

it should be possible for us to “learn the purpose and the way in which they are to live, love

and suffer” (GC, art. 10).

This is the hope with which the Presidency of the International Council of the OFS, having received the approved General Constitutions, sends them out to the whole Order so that, like the Rule, they may be studied, loved and lived. 

Emanuela De Nunzio 

Minister General of the OFS