John Corriveau – Capuchin Friar Minor, General Minister of the Order in the years 1994-2006, and since 2008 Bishop of the diocese of Nelson, BC, Canada.
What were the Lord’s gifts of grace during your service as General Minister? What, on the other hand, were the challenges? How did the development of the Franciscan charism of the Order go in that period and how did you see it as General Minister? Br. John responds to these questions during an interview held at our General Curia in Rome in January 2017.
“We are an Order of brothers – Br. John affirms – and our incarnation of the theology of communion is found in the fraternal, gospel life. Today we have become a truly global fraternity, and this is a great benefit. There’s another great benefit. The materially rich churches have become dependent on the poor churches and for Franciscans to depend on their poorer brothers is not a bad thing. […] Serving as General Minister was the greatest privilege of my life, because in the Franciscan tradition the General Minister is not a commander, but the charismatic successor of St. Francis. Francis was never one who commanded everybody. He was the one who called people to the centrality of Gospel life. […] I have seen a great development of the charism in these years. It began in the year 1982, with the new Constitutions. In that period we began to assimilate the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council and to redefine the identity of the Church in our Order into a vision of communion. […] In our Order we also anticipated the ideas of John Paul II. In the year 2000, in Novo Millennio Ineunte 43, the Pope writes that we have to incarnate a theology of communion in a spirituality of communion. Without this spirituality of communion the structures of communion will be a mask rather than a reality. […] I think that this was a true and authentic sign of the Holy Spirit working in us and calling us to be who we are to be. And this had had many strong and practical examples in our fraternal life and in the way in which we work in the world. […] I think that the Capuchins can rediscover our charism in the world by living it. St. Francis did not start with a concept. St. Francis started with a relationship with Jesus Christ. His relationship with Jesus, his relationship with the Father. This led him to embrace brotherhood. Brotherhood was always a work in progress for St. Francis and so it is for us. We do it day by day, and we do it in a relationship with our own people. We don’t develop our charism and then take it to the people. We develop our charism in a dynamic relationship with one another and with the world around us. Brotherhood is not a concept. It is a lived reality. […] We are not isolated communities. We belong to one, universal brotherhood. […] No culture has the total answer. The answer comes by means of listening to the other and in this way our charism will continue to develop itself and to flourish in the world. But this is not our work but the work of the Holy Spirit acting within us, bringing alive that Spirit of Jesus through the vision of St. Francis. And I believe that this is happening. And I believe that this will continue, because it’s beyond us; it’s the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. […] I am living my vocation as a bishop as what I am. […] I try to be faithful to the call while continuing to be a friar. I believe that this is my task, to put a fraternal face on the episcopal office. This is my vocation to be a friar in a different way. […] Let it happen, Brothers! Continue to live brotherhood in the world! When we live dynamic relationship with one another .. the Trinity is a mystery of divine relationship, calling us always into a deeper relationship with one another. And the more we enter into relationship with one another and with the world around us, the more we enter into the mystery of God. So I say continue to develop the great gift that our Order is, a brotherhood of Gospel life in the world.”
