After a free day on Sunday and a visit to Assisi, the delegates resumed their activities. Father Fabio Rosini’s meditation encouraged them to preserve their charismatic DNA, while group work began on Mission, Collaboration, and the St. Lawrence Fraternities.
The second week of the Ninth Plenary Council of the Order (PCO) has begun. After an intense first week of reflection on the themes of mission in the Church, listening to testimonies, and analyzing the Church in the present day, the friar delegates enjoyed a well-deserved rest. During this time, some had the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to the seraphic city of Assisi to “rediscover” the places where the Franciscan Order has its roots.
A Day of Recollection with Father Fabio Rosini: A Change of Perspectives
This second week began in a different way. Monday, October 19, was dedicated to prayer and personal reflection through a spiritual retreat led by Father Fabio Rosini, a priest of the Diocese of Rome, a biblical scholar, and a contributor to Vatican Radio. In his meditations, Father Fabio invited us to make a fundamental shift in perspective: to abandon the trap of “what we must do”—linked to an abstract and distant ideal—and instead focus on “what we can do,” starting from the concrete reality of history. Faith and charism, he emphasized, must never become an ideology or an abstract dictatorship that imposes itself on reality, but must live within the Catholic logic of “and—and,” where charism and concrete history meet and enrich one another according to the true dynamic of the Incarnation. It is precisely in this fidelity to its deepest nature that the Church rediscovers the vital need for the Capuchin charism and austerity, capable of calling everyone back to the essential pillars of the spiritual life.
When it comes to decision-making and discernment, the importance of remaining faithful to priorities rather than constantly chasing after emergencies has become clear, since yielding to the urgencies of the moment does not build anything lasting. The rigid schedules of the past are often upended by the unexpected; for this reason, the friars were urged not to let themselves be swallowed up by bureaucratic management or the defense of structures at the cost of burnout, even accepting the loss of resources and comforts in order to preserve their spiritual DNA. At the end of his talk, the speaker reminded the audience that pastoral work must move beyond the quantitative anxiety of performance to embrace the qualitative dimension of living as children of God, since remaining authentically faithful to who we are is the only true force capable of setting the world ablaze.
Beginning the Group Work on Mission, Collaboration, and the St. Lawrence Fraternities
On Tuesday, October 20, the delegates began their main work, following earlier reflections on mission and the Church today. To introduce the proceedings, the General Minister outlined the logistical arrangements that would accompany the reflections: the division into different groups by language, the topics under discussion, and the alternation between group work sessions and plenary meetings for sharing.
For the discussion, the presidential council decided to form four groups. During the first morning session, it was proposed to explore the topic of Mission in greater depth. In the afternoon of this intense first day, the delegates gathered to share the results of their morning work and begin to outline their reflections on Mission, Collaboration, and the St. Lawrence Fraternities, which are the themes taken up by PCO IX.
Indonesian
