Youth work and Franciscan Youth

Consclusions of the SFO General Chapter , Mexico , 10-17 October, 1993

In the field of youth work, we find young people attracted to Saint Francis, who want to deepen their franciscan vocation. To them we should propose the options of the form of life of Franciscan Youth and of the SFO, fully respecting the needs of the world of youth with its crises, problems and questions.

Some essential elements of their vocational journey are:

• a feeling of being called by the Holy Spirit to live in fraternity the experience of Christian life;

• a progressive discovering of Saint Francis, of his life-project and his values;

• an ecclesial and social presence, as a condition to living concrete experiences of apostolate.

The Franciscan Youth, as meant by the SFO General Constitutions, differentiates itself from other groups of young franciscans by:

• its acceptance of the Rule of the SFO as a document of inspiration;

• the personal and formal commitment taken before God and the fraternity to live out this inspiration;

• its belonging to the franciscan family as an integral part of the SFO;

• its being accompanied and animated by Secular Franciscans;

• its own organizational structure and specific methods of formation, in a vocational journey which generally, but not necessarily, leads to the SFO;

• its own national Statutes, approved by the CIOFS Presidency, which regulate the conditions of belonging to the Franciscan Youth.

The relations between the Franciscan Youth and the SFO should be marked by a reciprocal life-giving communion. The franciscan formation received in the Franciscan Youth by a young person who wants to enter the SFO can be considered valid for the period of initiation (postulancy) in the SFO. The period of initial formation (novitiate) in the SFO has to be lived under the responsibility of the Council of the SFO Fraternity which the young person wants to enter, in conformity with the Rule and the Constitutions of the SFO.

To avoid the risk that young professed members of the SFO after some time lose contact, the Chapter suggests a more creative application of article 34 of the Constitutions, which makes it possible to form sections or groups, united by specific needs, under the guidance of the one Council of the fraternity.

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