Chapter of Mats - Europe

CAPUCHIN EUROPE: "QUO VADIS?"

Br. Pio Murat OFMCap

I have recently had occasion to visit many of our friaries in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. Some, dating back to the XVI century, witness to the vitality our Order has had since its origin. But Capuchin Europe of today, above all in the northwest of the continent, is very different. The particularly elevated median age of the Provinces and the diminishment of the number of candidates raises not a few questions regarding the future of our presence in Europe. The problem is strongly felt both by the Provinces affected and by the General Minister and his Council.

This impoverishment, seen as a test, can nevertheless be also an authentic challenge to rethink the meaning of our presence in a secularized and multiethnic world. If the nostalgia for a time already past is not a fertile attitude, the fundamental aspects of our Capuchin-Franciscan vocation constitute elements that are always current for serving the Church and the world. Fraternity, the seeking of God in prayer, service to the little and the poor, and the evangelical mission toward our contemporaries are signs that speak today as yesterday. The letter of the General Minister, "Let us Fan the Flame of our Charism" is an explicit appeal to find again a new enthusiasm.

For Europe and the Circumscriptions that find themselves in similar situations, it is not about assuring our presence as it once was, but of thinking of a "fraternity-sign" – others, according to the genius of their proper language, speak of a "fraternity-key." – in a way that, living the essentials of our charism, it might commit us to the service of the Church. Clearly we are not thinking of a "pilot fraternity" or a "model fraternity," but of brothers that, convinced of the beauty of our vocation and of its value for our society, accept to blaze with simplicity and trust the path of a presence that is living and evangelically apt.

Last June, the Presidents of the Capuchin Conferences of Europe and the General Council reflected on the questions that regard our presence in Europe. They developed the program for all the Ministers – Provincials and Custodes – of Europe who will meet at Fatima from December 1 to 5, 2014. 80 friars from the continent and the Presidents of other Capuchin Conferences will participate in the meeting. There will be space given, more than to lecture, to the witness to lived experience and to exchange between the participants. It is foreseen that the work carried out, at the end of the meeting, should flow into concrete proposals for the future.

Our more greatly felt hope is that the meeting of the Ministers of Europe – gathered in this great place of faith – should manifest the reasons for our hope and open us to fertile initiatives for the future.