Address of John Paul II General Chapter OFM

June 22, 2021

Address of John Paul II General Chapter OFM

Address of John Paul II to the General Chapter of the Order of Friars Minor

(About the three fidelities of Franciscan Spirituality)

Rome, June 22, 1985

From May 12 to June 22, 1985, the OFM General Chapter was celebrated in the Porziuncola (Santa María de los Ángeles). The Pope addressed a letter to the same, which is dated May 8, 1985 and the text of which we have already published. At the end of the Chapter, on June 22, John Paul II received the capitulars, and the re-elected Minister General, Fr. Vaughn, addressed him a few words of greeting on behalf of the entire Order. On this occasion, the Pope delivered the following speech, translated from Italian into English.

Dear brothers of the Order of Friars Minor:

1. At the beginning of the work of the General Chapter, I sent you a message of encouragement, trust and hope, with the intention of seeing even more valued the precious spiritual heritage of your Order, increasing your love for the Church after the example of Saint Francis, and ever more faithfully observed the Rule that your Seraphic Father entrusted to the approval and custody of Holy Mother Church.

At the closing of your chapter works I have the joy of receiving you to greet and thank not only you, but all the Friars Minor, wishing each one a life lived with perennial fidelity to the Gospel, to the Church, to examples and teachings of St. Francis.

And I want to express a special gratitude to the Reverend Father General Minister of the Order, Father John Vaughn, for the words he has just addressed to me.

Allow me to also thank Bishop Vincenzo Fagiolo, Secretary of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, for his presence in your work, as a special delegate for your Chapter.

The charism of the founder: holiness

2. The choice of the place where the Chapter was held is in itself highly indicative. Indeed, the Porziuncola speaks of a deep connection with the origins and encourages us to follow with deep fervor the charism of the founder.

In the crypt of the patriarchal basilica of Santa María de los Ángeles, precisely in front of the remains of the small convent that San Francisco inhabited, there is an altar supported by a robust tree trunk, whose branches support the table: this has been intended to represent effective and plastic way, the exuberant vitality of Franciscanism.

In fact, the history of the Order, already eight times a hundred years old, shows that the tree planted by Saint Francis at the foot of the altar dedicated to the Virgin of the Angels, in the mystical Chapel of the Porziuncola, has grown vigorous and fruitful, and it has spread its branches throughout the world, by virtue of the spirit that has animated it from the beginning.

It is enough to take a look at the "Martyrologium Franciscanum" (Vicentiae, 1939), in which the saints, blessed, venerable and servants of God that the Seraphic Order has donated to the Church are remembered, to realize the wonderful flowering of the Franciscan holiness.

I myself have had the joy of raising to the altars Blessed Pedro de Betancur, the apostle of Guatemala and Central America; Blessed Salvador Lilli and seven fellow martyrs; to Blessed Catalina Troiani, founder of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and on March 9, I approved the decree on the heroic virtues of the great apostle of Mexico and California, the venerable Junipero Serra.

They are luminous models of the great religious vitality that you have inherited: the glories of the past indicate the path that the Order must continue to travel in the future.

San Francis' options

3. The options of Saint Francis must be your options; He knew how to read the Gospel from the beginning with clear eyes, and he decided to put it into practice with his gaze fixed on the Word of God who became man and our brother.

The sanctuaries of Greccio and Alverna are reminding us that the Saint of Assisi wanted to model his life after that of the Redeemer, from Bethlehem to Calvary.

He did not want other masters, but followed the one Master with all his love, with unwavering fidelity and with total renunciation of himself, committing himself to the most rigorous practice of the word and in complete availability at the service of God and men.

To be sure of his options in the founding of the Order, he moved from Assisi to Rome, to ask for the approval of the Vicar of Christ, and in the first chapter of the Bull Rule he wrote: “Brother Francis promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Honorius and his canonically elected successors ”(2 R 1,2).

An eminent characteristic of his spirituality was his filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Before founding the Order of Friars Minor, he went to pray in the chapel of Santa María de los Ángeles, in the Porziuncola, and at the foot of the altar dedicated to the Virgin he founded the First, Second and Third Orders.

Thus, there are three basic points of Franciscan spirituality: Fidelity to Christ and the Gospel, lived in love and poverty; filial devotion to the Mother of God; fidelity to the Church.

Fidelity to Christ and to the Church today

4. Modern society still needs the presence of Saint Francis, because it needs Christ, whose most characteristic features the Poor Man was able to propose anew with extraordinary efficiency. "Franciscanism" is essentially "imitation of Christ", for the proclamation of the Gospel, for the conversion of men to the only revealed Truth, for the salvation of souls with the perspective of eternity.

For this reason, your presence is, above all, a presence of convinced and sure faith, that is, of fidelity to the entire message of Christ and to the Magisterium of the Church that He wanted and founded on Peter and the Apostles. Feel in your spirits the urgency of unity in Truth and discipline, following in this the admirable example of your founder. He never allowed himself to depart from the teaching and guidance of those whom he recognized as messengers of God in the Church. He also had sufferings; He was not spared the bitterness of contrasts and misunderstandings; but he always knew how to look beyond the limitations of individual persons and contingent dispositions; he knew how to see the Person of the Divine Master and hear his voice: «Sanctify them in the Truth. Your word is Truth ... »(Jn 17:17).

Following the doctrine authentically taught by the Church also means avoiding confusion and confusion, always damaging to its unity.

May Saint Francis enlighten you and give you the inner strength necessary to always be faithful to Christ and the Church in the current vicissitudes of society, in such a way that you present before the eyes of men the authentic image of the one who appeared before his contemporaries. as "vir catholicus, totus apostolicus", a catholic male, totally apostolic (Julián de Espira, Vita, n. 28).

Requirements of the Franciscan presence

5. Your presence as children of Saint Francis must then manifest itself in a serious commitment to personal sanctification. You are fully convinced that it is divine grace that works in souls; and you also know that you can only give what you have. True "Franciscanism" requires complete humility, a total abandonment to Providence through obedience to the Church and to one's superiors, a perfect detachment from earthly goods through poverty and chastity.

It is undoubtedly a way of life that requires heroism. But it is based on a special vocation, it can count on particular gifts of the Spirit and it is a source of supreme consolations, which nourish that soft joy that shone on the faces of Francis and his first companions, according to the testimony of the old chronicler: «Great was his joy ”(1 Cel 35).

Presence today, realizing the Beatitudes

6. Finally, your presence as "Franciscan Friars Minor" in modern society must be realized in the service and love of men, following the example of the Poor. I insist: following the example of the Poor Man. Her testimony, indeed, preserves an incomparable originality, which distinguishes it from other proposals in this matter and explains, at the same time, its ever-current fascination.

It is a very significant fact that, after eight centuries, Saint Francis has not lost any of his freshness: it could be said that he is part of the universal "conscience". From Dante to Goethe, from Giotto to Murillo, from Saint Bonaventure to Alejandro Manzoni, it has been and is a source of inspiration and reflection for all humanity. Why has the human heart so fascinated? Because of the authentically evangelical flavor that its message, even social, preserves. He, also by preaching the need for social justice and co-participation, made us understand, at the same time, the irrevocable and perennial value of the "Beatitudes."

Indeed, the "Beatitudes" cannot be eliminated either from the structure of history, much less from the context of the Gospel. Loving and serving the men of today certainly means working for the development and progress of society and for the achievement of more just and dignified human conditions; But it also means never deceiving anyone about the true meaning of the earthly pilgrimage, whose ultimate goal transcends time and cannot be achieved without the exercise of an enlightened detachment from material goods and without the practice of charity that understands and forgives: "Be praised, my Lord, for those who forgive for your love and endure sickness and tribulation ..." (Song 10).

Bring Christ to our times

7. Before you, sons of Saint Francis, I am pleased to repeat the prayer that came from my heart in Assisi, at the beginning of my pontificate, when, on my first pilgrimage, I wanted to go kneel before the tomb of your founder: « You, who brought Christ so close to your time, help us to bring Christ closer to ours, to our difficult and critical times. You, who have carried in your heart the vicissitudes of your contemporaries, help us, with a heart close to the heart of the Redeemer, to embrace the vicissitudes of the men of our time: the difficult social, economic, political problems, the problems of culture and of contemporary civilization, all the sufferings of today's man, his doubts, his denials, his disbands, his tensions, his complexes, his concerns ... Help us to resolve all this in an evangelical key, so that Christ himself can be " Way-Truth-Life "for the man of our time" (cf. Selecciones de Franciscanismo, n. 22, 1979, p. 4).

Bring to your brothers scattered throughout the world the certainty that the apostolic work they carry out, even when humble and hidden, is great before God, is precious to the Church and is beneficial to society.

Bring to the world today the peace and joy of Saint Francis!

And may my blessing also be favorable to you, which I now impart to you with all my heart and affectionately extend to the entire Order of Friars Minor.

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