acta ordinis fratrumminorum - OFM

AD CHRONICAM ORDINIS 287mentalism and violence inflicted by the Muslimsagainst Christians. But from a Christianand Franciscan perspective, dialogue is not anoption; it is what we are called to do. We cannotrenounce to love the other, even if he is afanatic Muslim. Even if he cannot understandour life, our religion, and our ideas. Still wemust love him. As Christians, we must loveothers and try to do our best in doing so. Theresults, only God knows. Towards the end ofthe discussion, Bro. Jose Rodriguez Carballoshared his vision of a possible project in Asia,that of opening a new presence in Nagasaki,Japan which would foster commitment forpeace. Bro. Paul Jun Hasegawa welcomed theidea.The session ended at 5:50 PM. At 6:30 PM,the friars had adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.Dinner followed. After dinner, the BayanihanDance Troupe entertained the friarswith their superb cultural presentation to thedelight of everyone. Some friars were alsoinvited to dance with the performers. At 8:15PM, the two conferences had their separatemeetings and election of officers.JUNE 29, 2011: Justice, Peace andIntegrity of CreationMorning SessionThe third and last day of the meeting startedwith a morning praise at 6:30 AM in theSisters’ chapel. The prayer was led by Bro.Eduardo Armenta. After the prayer, breakfastfollowed.The morning session began at 8:40 AM.Bro. Vicenzo Brocanelli, Bro. Gabriel fromWest Papua, and Bro. Moghal from Pakistanlit the candles and led the prayer “Vieni, SantoSpirito”. Then the friars sang an Urdu hymn.This was followed by a meditative reading onFranciscan peacemaking. Bro. Mark AdameBakari gave the recap of the previous day’sproceedings.Bro. Trevor D’Souza invited the GeneralDefinitors to give a brief sharing of the Conferencesthat they work with. Bro. VicenzoBrocanelli shared about Europe. Bro. FrancisWalter shared about the English-speakingConference. Bro. Nestor Schwerz sharedabout Latin America, where there are fourConferences. Bro. Michael Perry shared aboutAfrica, which has 13 entities and a little lessthan 900 friars.Bro. Trevor D’Souza announced the resultsof the previous evening’s election. Bro. BaltazarObico and Bro. Paul Jun Hasegawa werere-elected as president and vice-president ofEAC respectively. Bro. Paul Smith and Bro.Babu Jose were re-elected as president andvice-president of SAAOC respectively.Bro. Simon Kim presented his report asEAC JPIC secretary. He enumerated the JPICactivities of each entity in EAC (e.g. peacemaking,inter-religious dialogue, relief operations,migrants and refugees, environmentaladvocacy, indigenous people, AIDS/HIV,human trafficking, etc.) There are two JPICprojects of the conference, the EAC migrantsproject in South Korea, and the planned Asia-Oceania Franciscan JPIC course in the OurLady of the Angels Seminary (OLAS) in thePhilippines.Bro. Peter Aman reported on JPIC ofSAAOC. The entities are engaged in socialcharity, ecology, human rights, inter-religiousdialogue, peace and non-violence, and socialjustice. He concludes by pointing out that thereis a growing consciousness on JPIC as integralpart of our Franciscan life. Some of the weaknessesand difficulties faced are the lack offull-time brothers for JPIC work and serviceas well as lack of well-trained and qualifiedanimators for the same.At 10:40 AM, the session resumed. TheMinister General gave his response on the reportsabout JPIC. He stressed the importanceof JPIC in our Franciscan charism. He said heis convinced that we need real dialogue amongthe brothers. After this, he read some textsfrom the document “Bearers of the Gift of theGospel” on JPIC.The open forum began with discussionon the promotion of the spirituality of JPIC.Our main contribution in building ecologicalawareness is in the spiritual and theologicaldimension. We must defend ecology notbecause of the consideration that man is thecenter of the universe, but our conviction thatnature is a sign of God, as Saint Bonaventurespoke strongly about. It was questioned alsohow the documents of the General Curia onJPIC have been used in the Conferences. Thecall on integrated formation was again reiterated.Afternoon Session: ResolutionsIn the afternoon, the two conferences deliberatedon the proposed plan of action. Afterwards,the delegates gathered to discuss, finalize,and approve the plan of action.