Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Peace to each of you, and all that is good!
November already ... where has the time gone?!
It was good for our Ministers and Formation Directors and all others who joined us to gather together for our Annual Chapter
and to share Fraternity with one another! How wonderful to know we could've filled the Retreat Center had the rooms
been available ... maybe next time.
To keep you all "in the loop," please allow
me to present to you, on behalf of your Regional Executive Council, a report on the “State of our Region.”
Since last we gathered, we have declined
slightly in membership (843 professed, rather than 869) but we have hope for growth because of those in initial formation
(about 65 candidates and 47 inquirers). God is truly blessing us!
Of the 32 Fraternities in our Region, 11 remain without Spiritual
Assistance. We have been in contact with the Provincial Spiritual Assistants
for each of these Fraternities and have advised them of the urgency of the situation.
While we will continue to encourage them to help us with this, we continue to encourage the Ministers of our Fraternities to
contact them themselves, especially if they know of a Franciscan priest, brother or sister who is willing to serve as
a Spiritual Assistant, even if only on a part-time basis; i.e., rather than be
with you every meeting, they might be able to join you every other month or so. The
“Franciscan Family Connections” course, formerly known as “Lifegiving Union,” for professed Secular
Franciscans continues to be offered by the Conference of National Spiritual Assistants, but there are specific protocols which
must be observed and, at least at present, it is not recommended that a Secular Franciscan who completes this course be assigned
to his/her Fraternity as Spiritual Assistant. If you would like further information
about this, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
A few of our Fraternities are growing young, most are growing older
but, for the most part, our Fraternities continue to grow in love and in service to one another. This we have been privileged to witness first-hand through the many fraternal/pastoral visits Bro. Larry,
Fr. Francis and I have made and through the Chapters of Elections over which we have presided.
We have conducted fraternal/pastoral visitations of 17 Fraternities over the past year, and have presided over 7 Chapters
of Election. Throughout this time, it has become clear to us that FORMATION,
both initial and ongoing, must most urgently be the focus of our attention.
This became even more evident as I reviewed the responses provided by the Fraternities
who participated in the CIOFS project. There is no doubt that being a Secular
Franciscan is vital to the lives of the professed persons in our Region. Many
of you do enjoy that “sense of belonging” and are intimately involved in the life of your local Fraternity
and the life of the Regional Fraternity. However, for many more, the understanding of
what this means and the expression of the Secular Franciscan way of life is not as evident.
This is easily recognized by a professed member's inability to attend Fraternity gatherings for various reasons
having nothing to do with work, family, their own health issues, or need to care for family members.
Our Fraternities are struggling to find individuals willing to serve and to
lead. The Order belongs “to the other member.” Somehow, something went missing in the Initial Formation process.
The Rule and our governing documents often seem to have gotten lost in the translation.
It may be that Fraternities have been so afraid of dwindling down to nothing that they’ve been more interested
in numbers than in discernment … it’s beginning to show.
We would all agree that Formation, both initial and ongoing, is the life blood
of the Fraternity. Unfortunately, there are several Fraternities in our Region
that think their Formation programs are just fine, when they are barely adequate. In
truth, our Formators and our Formation Directors need instruction on how to fulfill their roles. Somehow, we need to recapture that first fervor, so we can rekindle the spark, fan it into a fire, and
draw others to share in its warmth. It is our hope that the programs we hope
to continue in the months ahead will provide us all with the tools we need for meaningful, effective formation.
Many of the Fraternities in our Region continue to be involved in various apostolates,
including: working in soup kitchens; serving in food cupboards; attending to
the needs of elderly loved ones; serving in parishes; visiting the homebound; working in prison ministry; serving as Chaplains
… you get the idea, I’m sure. It is evident from review of the Annual
Reports that so many of our sisters and brothers are giving their very best to blooming where they’ve been
planted … in the ordinary circumstances of life.
As has been said, although a few of our Fraternities are growing young, more
of our Fraternities are growing old and members who have been faithfully attending monthly gatherings through the years find
themselves unable to do so for one reason or another. Encourage them to support
us in prayer as we give effort to discerning ways to make ourselves better known, keeping always
in mind that the Secular Franciscan way of life is a vocation ... a call to a
way of life. We invite you once again to dialog with one another – with
the Fraternities in your districts, with other Fraternities in our Region, with friends you might know from other Fraternities
throughout the country, and with the Regional Executive Council about how we all might invite men and women of good standing
in the Church to join us in spreading the good news of the Gospel in the way that is unique to Secular Franciscans. This continues to be our challenge for the months and years ahead.
Working together, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, we can find a way to invite others to discern their vocation
to the Gospel life in the footsteps of St. Francis.
Two weeks ago, I attended the Annual NAFRA meeting in Nashville, Tennessee,
hosted by the Brothers and Sisters of St. Francis Region. (I found my inner cowgirl
... who knew?!) All of the Regions were represented at this gathering either by the Regional Ministers or by
their delegates. Copies of the “State of the Order” address delivered
by Patrick Mendes, SFO, our National Minister, the report from the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee (“JPIC”),
Anne Mulqueen, SFO’s Report on the CIOFS project, and the NAFRA budget for 2009, have been provided to each Minister
of the Fraternities in our Region. The budget was approved as presented, although
I must confess to you I did not vote in favor of it because there was little, if no, back-up information provided to support
the figures presented. We have been assured that such information will be timely
provided in the future. This budget includes the $2 raise in the fair share contribution,
which was approved last year.
Bob Fitzsimmons, SFO, was introduced as the new Formation Commission Chair. He has great plans for the future of Formation and has already scheduled a workshop
in May, 2009, in Belleville,
IL (Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows) for Regional Formation Directors. As information is passed to us, we will pass it on to you.
CIOFS has requested that another demographic report be completed, and so the
Ministers of our Fraternities will review these reports with their members, complete them, and return them to me no later
than January 31, 2009.
We approved two resolutions: one
addressing the economic issues facing our country; the other with regard to ours sisters and brothers who are suffering in
Orissa, India. These resolutions were provided
to our Ministers and have been posted to our website (click NAFRA Resolutions). We encourage you to use them
to alert those who represent you in Washington of your desire to stand in solidarity with the poor and disenfranchised of
our nation and our suffering sisters and brothers in India. You may also wish to consider visiting the website for Franciscan Action Network, becoming a member (at
no cost to you) and taking action to alert those in authority to the Franciscan point of view.
Finally, let us be grateful for the good work of:
Justin Carisio, SFO, our Regional Vice-Minister. It is unfortunate that mother nature interfered with his efforts to bring Fr. Regis Armstrong, OFM Cap.
to Aston, PA, this past September. He will
be conferring with Fr. Regis to see when his schedule will permit him to travel this way again, but in any event you can be
sure that Justin will be preparing for a Leadership Workshop next fall so that the good work that has begun can continue.
Mary Christine Huber, SFO, our Regional Formation Director, and the members
of our Formation Commission: Sue Campos, SFO, Millie Rolls, SFO, and Pam Stout, SFO.
Chris and the members of the Commission worked tirelessly to assemble material for presentation at our Annual
Meeting and will be working on formation programs to be presented in the coming months.
Sue North, SFO, our Regional Secretary.
Without Sue’s assistance, dedication and hard work, we’d be in quite a pickle! She keeps us focused, on track and is tireless in her willingness to serve.
Stephanie Wiecer, SFO, our Regional Treasurer and Newsletter Editor. Steph’s excellent accounting skills keep us fiscally sound and provide you with
the information you need to make well-informed decisions about budget issues. Her
report and the proposed budget for 2009 have been provided to the Ministers. Stephanie
has revamped our Regional Newsletter and made it available for posting to our website.
She has plans for future editions of The New Seraphicus, and will share
those with you soon.
Dolores Lydon, SFO, our Councillor-at-Large, Database Guru (and new grandmother). Dolores maintains contact with our District
Councillors, keeping our database information current, and makes sure that the information provided to our Minsiters and Formatin
Directors via e-mail is sent to those Ministers and Formation Directors without this service.
Bro. Larry Hilferty, TOR, and Fr. Francis Sariego, OFM Cap., for their
generosity and continual self-giving. We are blessed to have them both with us
and we are most fortunate to have the benefit of the wisdom and reflections Fr. Sariego shares with us each month on our website.
Dawn Rusinko, SFO, our Youth Commission Chair. In addition to Dawn’s willingness to work with youth and young adults in our Region and assist the
Fraternities in our Region interested in forming and supporting Franciscan Youth and Young Adult groups, through her efforts,
our Region was credited with raising $1,201.75 for the Water Project sponsored by the Youth and Young Adult Commission.
Kathy Agosto, SFO, Kam Hujber, SFO, Don Foote, SFO, Midge Sheenan, SFO, and
Bobbi O’Sullivan, SFO, our District Councillors, for their continued efforts to maintain contact with the Ministers
in their respective Districts and to keep the RFEC informed of the needs of the Fraternities in their care.
Micki McIntyre, SFO, and the members of the Liturgy Committee for the
fine work they have done not only in preparing the prayer services we will share together, but in collecting and assembling
prayer services from each of you for inclusion in a book of useful prayers and rituals they are preparing for the use of the
Region. This work is nearly complete and will be provided to you in the near
future.
The Fraternities who have so graciously donated their time, talent and
treasure, assisting in the preparation for our Workshops and our Annual Meeting.
Each of Ministers, Formation Directors and Councillors for their hard
work and dedication to their sisters and brothers in Fraternity.
Each of You
who, being attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, give your best effort to living faithfully your vocation each
day.
Let's continue to hold one
another in a prayer, and to pray for the success of our General Chapter in Hungary, that the “arsonist of the heart”
will enfold our hearts as we all begin again to serve our sisters and brothers in Fraternity.
Peace,
all good, and much love,
mattie♥
