Our day began again with morning prayer and the liturgy. After a good breakfast, we began the morning session with a presentation by Br. Luis Carlos Susin, who belongs to the province of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Luis received a doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome. His thesis was: O Messianic Man -- An Introduction to the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas. He is a theological professor at Porto Alegre and Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. Professor Susin is also a member of the editorial board of Concilium. He is the President of SOTER (Society of Theology and Science of the Religion). Br. Luis is the author of numerous books as well as liturgical and Franciscan hymns. He used the parable of the Good Samaritan and Francis’ experience with the leper as inspiration to build a new model of society . He had five main points in his talk:

1. Diverse possibilities for service so that a different world might become a reality.
2. Minority as a relationship of service rather than an identity.
3. Minority as a necessary relationship arising out of an encounter with others who live minority.
4. Relationships of service that can help to sustain a new and possible vision of the world.
5. Finally, minority in the complexity of social dialectic, moving from proximity to organized solidarity, without losing the foundational experience of minority.

In the afternoon, Br. David B. Couturier, Vicar Provincial of the Capuchin Province of St. Mary (New York-New England, USA) spoke on “Itinerarium in Extremis: Franciscan Formation and the Anthropology of the Fraternal Economy.” He is the past President of Franciscans International, the non-governmental Organization (NGO) at the United Nations. He is the founding director of The Center for Structural Conversion, a ministry that provides organizational development and consultation services to religious and not for profit communities. Br. David holds a doctorate in pastoral counseling. He began his presentation with a sober reminder of human suffering in the world and exposed the “world in Extremis” as global poverty and violence. He said that poverty is a structural disorder of the rich and creates extreme vulnerabilities such as diseases, crimes, violence and economic crises. It needs a structural conversion. Next, he highlighted the central elements of the anthropology of the fraternal economy: creation and cosmic fraternity, communion and mutual interdependence and social structures that could be the basis of our formation of minority and itinerancy. He concluded his presentation with these words: “In the face of this global violence and poverty we have proposed minority as a social virtue of international compassion and itinerancy as a passionate and confident moving forward and beyond the frontiers of language, class, ideology, gender, orientation and caste, so that we can live our call to be in free communion with persons without domination or deprivation.”