Friday, May 24

At 7:30 a.m. the friars celebrated the feast day of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, which was consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1253. 

Those par­tic­i­pat­ing at the Mass includ­ed the fri­ars of the Sacred Con­vent com­mu­ni­ty, the Capit­u­lars, and fri­ars and sis­ters from oth­er Fran­cis­can fam­i­lies. The presider was the Most Rev­erend Domeni­co SORRENTINO, Arch­bish­op of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gual­do Tadi­no, Italy. In his homi­ly he men­tioned that through bap­tism we are all made tem­ples of God. There­fore, all believ­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly fol­low­ers of St. Fran­cis, are called to “repair their church” by means of being holy.
Next, there was the inau­gu­ra­tion of an exhi­bi­tion on the meet­ing of St. Fran­cis with the Sul­tan. After the inau­gu­ra­tion, the Capit­u­lars began work in the Chap­ter audi­to­ri­um. Today, best wish­es were offered to Fri­ar Tim­o­thy KULBICKI who was cel­e­brat­ing his 33^rd anniver­sary of ordi­na­tion to the priest­hood, and to Fri­ar Leo PAYYAPPILLY, the Min­is­ter Provin­cial of the Province of St. Max­i­m­il­ian M. Kolbe in India, who was cel­e­brat­ing his 22^nd anniver­sary of solemn profession.
Then, the group sec­re­taries pre­sent­ed the sum­maries of their group’s dis­cus­sions. In par­tic­u­lar, they report­ed the answers to the ques­tion­naire that had been hand­ed out:
1. What are the three most impor­tant pos­i­tive achieve­ments of the Order today?
2. What are the three most cru­cial chal­lenges with­in the Order that should be tack­led head-on today?
3. What are the three most cru­cial chal­lenges fac­ing the Church and world to which the Order should respond with com­mit­ment today?
After that, time was allowed for indi­vid­ual Capit­u­lars to express their per­son­al opin­ion about the work that had been car­ried out in groups.
The sum­ma­ry was vot­ed on and approved. Addi­tion­al sug­ges­tions made by some Chap­ter offi­cials in the Chap­ter audi­to­ri­um will be insert­ed into it. The Capit­u­lars next heard from the Finance Com­mit­tee and the Griev­ance Com­mit­tee; no par­tic­u­lar issues were not­ed and the for­ma­tion of a Gen­er­al Finan­cial Com­mis­sion was proposed.
The Capit­u­lars received the gift of a book by Fri­ar Zdzisław KIJAS enti­tled, “Max­i­m­il­ian Kolbe: The Inner Journey”.
Last­ly, Fri­ar Emanuele RIMOLI announced the pro­ce­dure for the elec­tion of the new Min­is­ter Gen­er­al, which will take place tomor­row morning.

Fri­ar Aure­lio ERCOLI, Chronicler