Rome (Agenzia Fides) – “It is necessary to identify concrete ways ways of ‘going out’ on mission, responding with joy to the Lord who calls us to conversion, bearing witness to the Gospel according to the authentic Franciscan way of life, in today’s rapidly changing world”. This is what Father Michael Perry OFM, American friar and former minister general of the Order of Friars Minor, tells Fides, speaking about the commitment and challenges related to evangelization that Franciscan religious face with their missionary activity in the five continents. At the General Chapter of the Order of Friars Minor, held in Rome from July 3 to 18, Father Michael Perry, outgoing Minister General, gave way as the 121st successor of Saint Francis to the Italian friar Massimo Fusarelli. The Friars Minor are currently present in 119 countries. The latest statistics show a decline in vocations in North America (minus 31% in the last 10 years), followed by Western Europe (minus 25%). While growth continues in Africa, Asia and Oceania (+ 18%). “The missionary spirit of the Order – explains Friar Michael – has paved the way and continues to do so since its beginnings: the friars are not only in the big cities, but also on the peripheries of the world and in different contexts, where they carry out their service trying to face all the problems of the contemporary world. Today – he continues – we are experiencing radical changes, such as the economic revolution linked to globalization, the digital revolution and the bioethical revolution that disrupts our way of acting on nature. New forms of poverty have emerged, such as the unemployment of many young people, and then the problem of migratory flows that now see huge masses of people involved”.
EUROPE/ITALY – The mission of the Friars Minor in the world: “Living the Gospel in fraternal communion, building bridges of dialogue among all peoples” – Agenzia Fides
EUROPE/ITALY – The mission of the Friars Minor in the world: “Living the Gospel in fraternal communion, building bridges of dialogue among all peoples” – Agenzia Fides
Posted by