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Pope John Paul II's Message to the
Capitular Friars at the Vatican on June 7, 2001
ELECTION OF THE NEW MINISTER
GENERAL AND COUNCIL
OF THE THIRD ORDER REGULAR OF ST. FRANCIS OF PENANCE
General Chapter - Rome - May - June 2001
(Left) Fr. Edmund Carroll,
the President of the Chapter, blesses the
new Minister General, (right) Fr. Ilija Zivkovic, T.O.R.
from the Province of Saint Jerome in Croatia.
(Right) Fr. Michael
Higgins, T.O.R. new Vicar General
from the Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, U.S.A. |
Pope John Paul II's Message to the
Capitular Friars at the Vatican on June 7, 2001
Dear Brothers of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Assisi.
1. I am pleased to welcome you. .... You have gathered for a careful
examination of your religious, personal and community life, having as a term of reference
the Gospel and the penitential charism, outlined at the time of the Third Order=s origins and confirmed in so many centuries of
history. In this perspective, you are aware of the urgent need for continuous renewal on
your way of perfection in the footsteps of the "Poverello". Indeed, from this flows apostolic enthusiasm
which reveals your hearts to your brethren and prepares you to take on their existential
problems, in order to collaborate with Christ in the plan of salvation.
Feel committed to ever deeper conversion
to God in a penitential spirit.
2. Following Christ in accordance with the teaching and example of St.
Francis of Assisi is a special privilege for you, for which you must be deeply grateful to
the Lord who has called you. So many centuries of apostolic and charitable witness have
enriched your Order with merits and experience, endowing you with a particular spiritual
heritage, which you must take into account in your reviewing and planning.
However, religious life, imbued with the Gospel, does not stop at
satisfaction with the past, but intensely lives the present and enthusiastically projects
to the future. The dialectic between heritage and prophecy gives a valid basis to your
hopes for the Third Millennium which has already started so well.
In this perspective you must feel committed to an ever deeper
conversion to God, in whom you have placed your every hope. He must polarize your mind,
setting you free from the many hindrances that could reduce the effectiveness of your
Gospel witness in today's world. "May the
Father grant you...to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you ...may be filled with all the
fullness of God." (Eph. 3, 16.17.19.)
If, like St. Francis, you carry the Lord's Spirit in your hearts and reflect Christ's image in your attitude, your presence in the Church
will ear many fruits of life and will make an effective contribution to building the
civilization of love, modeled on the Gospel.
3. In Adynamic fidelity "to your charism, Alook to the future, where the Spirit is sending you
in order to do even greater things" (Vita
consecrata, n. 110). Letting yourselves be transformed by the Spirit, you cooperate
effectively in the civilization of the contemporary world and become "privileged partners in the search for God, which
has always stirred the human heart and has led to the different forms of asceticism and
spirituality."(ibid.,n.103)
In particular, persevere in your commitment to the missionary
apostolate, where your Order has acquired considerable merits, offering services of
Franciscan life, culture and active charity.
"With a creative search, think, up works of mercy which will renew
your traditional attention to society's weakest,
since serving the needy is an act of evangelization, the seal of Gospel authenticity and a
catalyst for permanent conversion." (cf.
Ibid., n. 82)
Like Francis of Assisi, preach peace and repentance, promote justice,
defend the rights of the human person, raise your voice against exploitation and violence,
attentively care for all the wounds that make humanity groan today.
Preach peace and repentance, defend the rights
of the human person, identify forms of charitable service.
4. If you can read the signs of the times in a perspective of faith and
with a loving gaze, it will be easy for you to identify new forms of evangelization and
charitable service, adapted to present needs.
Diligently help to promote culture, both as a service to your brothers
and sisters in search of truth and as a means of integral formation and a path of
asceticism (cf. Ibid., n.98). Study is "an
expression of the unquenchable desire for an ever deeper knowledge of God, the source of
light and all human truth...it is an incentive to dialogue and cooperation, a training in
the capacity for judgement, a stimulus to contemplation and prayer in the constant quest
for the presence and activity of God in the complex reality of today's world"
(ibid.,n.98)
Lastly, do not forget your recognized commitment to Christian unity and
ecumenical dialogue, as well as openness to interreligious dialogue, which is also part of
the Church's evangelizing mission (cf. Redemptoris
missio, n.55).
5. Here before you, dear brothers in Christ, is an exciting program for
the third millennium , which expects to see you as witnesses of Gospel conversion, workers
of charity and evangelization, prophets of a world renewed in faith and love, through a
fruitful inculcation of Christian values.
On this penitential journey, marked by the rhythms of conversion of
heart and the sequence of works of mercy, Francis of Assisi is your master and model. Look
to him, and he will lead you on the paths of the Gospel, in order to bring about a deep
experience of love for God and for your brothers and sisters.
With this wish, I cordially impart my Blessing to all of you and to all
the friars of the Order, as well as to the cloistered nuns of the Third Order Regular.
+ John Paul II
June 7, 2001
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