VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2002 (VIS) - The Pope today welcomed members of the presidency of the International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order, meeting in their Tenth General Chapter on the theme "Vital, Reciprocal Communion in the Franciscan Family."
The Pope noted that the Chapter "brought to an end the updating of your basic legislation," including the Rule, the Ritual, the General Constitutions and the International Statute, which was approved in the current Chapter. He said the Church awaits the Order's "great service to the cause of the Kingdom in today's world" and she desires "your Order to be a model of an organic whole and of structural and charismatic union at all levels."
"Your renewed legislation," he added, "gives you optimum instruments to realize and fully express the unity of your Order and the communion with the Franciscan family" as well as your mission to be "courageous and coherent witnesses of Christian and Franciscan life."
"You are called," John Paul II affirmed, "to offer your own contribution, inspired by the person and message of St. Francis of Assisi, to hasten the advent of a civilization in which the dignity of the human person, co-responsibility and love are living realities. You must study deeply the true foundations of universal brotherhood and create everywhere a spirit of welcome and an atmosphere of fellowship. Commit yourselves strongly to fighting every form of exploitation, discrimination and marginalization and every attitude of indifference towards others."
The Holy Father said he wished to conclude his message "by recommending to you to consider your family as the priority place in which to live your Christian commitment and Franciscan vocation," doing so through prayer, Christian catechesis, promoting respect for every life from conception to natural death and "offering a convincing example of the possibility of marriage lived in a way that fully conforms to God's plan."
AC;SECULAR FRANCISCANS;...;...;VIS;20021122;Word: 320;
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