Franciscans Celebrate 800 Years of Compassionate Service
Last April some 1,800 Friars Minor, Conventual Franciscans, Capuchins and Third Order Regular Franciscans attended a gathering in Assisi, Italy, celebrating the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule. Participants followed in the footsteps of their founder, St. Francis of Assisi, with many activities centered around or near the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, which houses the Portiuncula chapel -- the small church where St. Francis experienced his conversion. Praying before a cross, Francis had asked, “Lord, what shall I do?” The Lord answered him, “Francis, go and rebuild My Church, which is fallen into ruin.”
Father Mark Reamer, OFM, Pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Raleigh, was one of eight representatives from the Franciscan Holy Name Province to attend the gathering in Assisi. The friars traveled by bus from Assisi to Castel Gandolfo, where they crowded into a small courtyard to hear Pope Benedict XVI, who challenged them to be witnesses to the Resurrection. Writing to his parishioners, Father Reamer shared some of the Holy Father’s remarks:
“Continue to proclaim with passion the Kingdom of God. Every Brother and every Sister should keep always a contemplative mood, happy and simple; always begin from Christ, as Francis set out from the gaze of the Crucifix of San Damiano…to see the face of Christ in our brothers and sisters who suffer and bring to all His peace. Be witnesses to the "beauty" of God, which Francis was able to sing…Go and continue to ‘repair the house’ of the Lord Jesus Christ, his Church… Like Francis, always start with yourselves. We are the first house that God wants to restore. If you are always able to renew yourselves in the spirit of the Gospel, you will continue to assist the pastors of the Church to make more and more beautiful the Church's face, that of the bride of Christ.”
In North Carolina, Franciscans have been serving since the Diocese of Raleigh was established in 1924. At that time, Franciscan Sisters were teaching Black children in Wilmington. In the ‘30s and ‘40s, Franciscan Sisters, Brothers, Fathers, as well as Friars of the Atonement, expanded their efforts to educate the poor and disenfranchised and to open churches where all God’s children would be welcome. In today’s Raleigh Diocese, 20 spiritual descendants of St. Francis are active in ministry and service.
“The message St. Francis continues to offer,” said Sister Joan Jurski, OSF, Coordinator of the Peace and Justice/Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh, “is that our God is a compassionate God, One who was bent over on the cross in love, a God who delights to be with the simple and those rejected by the world. Francis saw the overflowing goodness of God at every level of creation. For Franciscans the world is our cloister because that is where God is found in the beauty of every person and all of creation.”
Father Steven Patti, OFM, Parochial Vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish in Durham, emphasized the role of Franciscans, since their founding, as peacemakers. “As a herald of the Gospel,” he explained, “Francis understood that his call was to help bring together what had fallen apart, to reconcile opposites. And this is why he remains so vital to us today. There is much conflict and violence in our lives, and in our world. Francis points to Christ and, marvels at the gift of the Eucharist; he asks us to step back in wonder at the beauty of God's creation, and be bearers of God's peace and goodness in our own lives.”
The Story of the Franciscans
800 Years after their founding, the challenge continues
Francis of Assisi was born in 1182, son of a cloth merchant. In his youth he was caught up working in the family business and enjoying himself. However, after being taken prisoner in a war, he began to re-evaluate the purpose of his life. He was first moved to reach out to lepers, the most marginalized people in his society, going among them to minister to their needs. Then, in 1206, praying one day in the tumble-down church of San Damiano, he heard the voice of Jesus calling him to “rebuild my house.” Francis took this command literally and sold some valuable cloth to obtain funds. This led to his being publicly disowned by his father, whereupon, in a dramatic gesture, Francis stripped himself naked before the assembled people of Assisi, symbolizing his break with the past. “From now on,” he declared, “I will no longer say ‘my father, Pietro Bernardone,’ but “our Father, who are in heaven.” From then on, Francis lived on the margins of society, owning nothing but a rough tunic, working at menial tasks or begging for his food. His particular concern was for the outcasts of society.
In 1208, Francis’s life took a further turn when he was joined by a few companions and was inspired to live a life “according to the pattern of the Gospel.” Critical here were the instructions that Jesus gave his disciples when he sent them out “to proclaim the good news: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Take no gold, silver or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, . . for the laborer deserves his living. . . let your peace come upon your hearers” (Matthew 10.7-10). Thus Francis and his first companions began calling others to respond to the Gospel call of personal conversion.
In 1209, they travelled together to Rome, to obtain Pope Innocent III’s approval of a simple Rule for their life together as “Lesser Brothers.” Then, as now, it would have been extremely difficult for anyone, let alone such an insignificant group, to gain an audience with the pope. Francis and his companions were fortunate in that the bishop of Assisi, Guido, had introduced them to one of Pope Innocent’s closest advisors, the Benedictine cardinal, John of St. Paul. John urged the little band to adopt one of the already established forms of religious life in the medieval Church: monks, hermits, or canons. But Francis was convinced of the distinct originality of the path he and his brothers had taken. Won over by their sincerity, the cardinal agreed to present them before Pope Innocent in the next consistory, an open court held several times a week in which the pope, advised by his cardinals, examined and resolved cases presented by petitioners.
Despite some initial misgivings, Pope Innocent did grant Francis’ petition to lead a radical Gospel life, authorizing him and his brothers to preach penance to the people as well, thus officially launching the Franciscan movement.
Their sense of mission originally sent Francis and his brothers to work among their neighbors in Assisi, informally spreading the Gospel message. But very soon, especially as the Lesser Brothers began to spread to different countries, they began taking on official ministries on behalf of the Church. More and more educated clerics entered their ranks, such as Anthony from far-off Portugal, who would eventually be identified with Padua, the city in Northern Italy where he came to be a noted preacher. Soon Franciscans were not only preaching, but becoming confessors, chaplains, professors of theology, diplomats and intrepid missionaries on behalf of the Church. In all of these roles, they always tried to maintain their popular “blue-collar” origins, identifying with the working classes and reaching out to the poor and abandoned of society.
As Franciscans celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Order’s founding, the General Minister of the Order of Friars Minor, Brother José Rodriguez Carballo, challenges Franciscans, reminding them that this anniversary cannot simply be about remembering and recounting a glorious history. “It is a graced moment for Franciscans to take up anew the challenge of the Second Vatican Council to examine ‘the signs of our times’ in light of the Gospel, and thus recreate Francis’ charism in light of the challenges of the present world. We wish to return to the essentials of our Gospel ‘form of life’ by re-reading it and re-incarnating it in the cultural reality of today.”
Fr. Dominic Monti, Vicar Provincial of Holy Name Province concludes: “One thing is clear: our Franciscan ‘life according to the pattern of the Gospel’ is not an abstract theory or amorphous spiritual ideal. It requires us, as Francis did, to discern the concrete ways in which the needs of our world and its people are calling us to empty ourselves in imitation of the poor and humble Christ. This is the only way that we, like Francis, can rebuild the Church of God in our day.”
Adapted from Fr. Dominic Monti, O.F.M.’s, book: Francis and His Brothers (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009).