During the week of June 29 to July 6, 2025, the Meeting of New Ministers (provincial ministers and custodes), who were elected or appointed over the last year in worldwide circumscriptions of our Order, was held.
The venue was our friary in Frascati (Rome), where 13 brothers elected to this service participated, together with the General Minister and his Council.
There was a palpable fraternal spirit, prayer and study, during which they reflected on themes of great importance for the different responsibilities that major superiors have in leading and animating our circumscriptions. The work was introduced by the General Minister recalling the main aspects of the Order’s journey today and outlining the plans for the ensuing sexennium. Then each participant took the floor to present something about their circumscription.
A variety of topics were explored as presented by some general councilors and brothers in charge of various offices in the General Curia, supported by reports with translations made available in several languages.
Here is a partial list of topics covered, which we can divide into three groups: our charism as applied to the service of a major superior (fidelity to consecrated life, the exercise of authority and obedience, animation of a circumscription, fraternal collaboration, formation, fraternal economy, missionary animation, JPIC animation, etc., and the formation of a circumscription.); operational elements that touch on their ministry (canonical aspects – office of the Procura – of administration in various areas, the mid-triennium report, postulation, St. Lawrence of Brindisi fraternities, communication, the relationship the General Secretariat and Curia Offices, assistance to the SFO, etc.); the central cultural institutions of the Order (Central Library, International College, Historical Institute, Franciscan Museum).
On the morning of July 4th, the meetings gave way to a jubilee pilgrimage with the Capuchin Family as they passed through the Holy Door at St. Peter’s, followed by a visit to the General Curia, providing an opportunity to know the friars with whom they will be dealing in their office.
The conclusion of the course was on July 6th in the cradle of Franciscanism: Assisi. Here the new major superiors were able to assimilate the information they had receive in an air of fraternity, tracing everything back to the word that inspired the Poverello: Francis go, and repair my house (which he heard in the church of San Damiano – valuable for the new ministers in their service).
After a stop in San Damiano, the Santuario della Spogliazione welcomed our friars for a celebration of the Eucharist. There followed an opportunity for them to visit other Assisi churches for personal devotion, before returning home to their circumscriptions enriched by the entire experience.
