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Comunità dei figli di Dio Website © Julia Bolton Holloway, 1998
COMUNITÀ DEI FIGLI DI DIO
COMMUNITY OF GOD'S SONS AND DAUGHTERS
STATUTE
'ut sitis filii Patris vestri'
'Become Your Father's Sons and Daughters'
SILVANO PIOVANELLI
ARCHBISHOP OF FLORENCE
DECREE OF APPROVAL OF THE COMUNITÀ DEI FIGLI DI DIO
The priest DIVO BARSOTTI has presented us a request for the approval of the COMMUNITÀ DEI FIGLI DI DIO founded and directed by him, and which we have carefully examined. We have considered thoughtfully the text of the Constitution of the Community and placed it under examination by prudent persons, in a position to give us an informed judgment. Besides, we know personally and for many years, the priest Divo Barsotti and the Community, and we esteem him and care for his foundation.
We know well, in fact, that the Comunità dei figli di Dio is a family open to welcome all who intend to live in the world following the evangelical counsels the mystery of filial adoption in perfect charity. No condition of life, no state, no age excludes anyone by itself from this monastic family and from this vocation: it was destined to embrace all.
At present we find in it: lay people with vows, of all social states and conditions; lay people gathered together in community; lay people who live the contemplative life; priests and seminarians.
The Monastic Family reaches to different parts of Italy; its distinctive groups are in Lombardy-Piedmont; Venice; Trentino-Alto Adige; Emilia; Central Italy; Campania, Sicily. Today it has 133 members under Vows; 386 not making Vows, and 84 aspirants. The Community is divided into Families and Groups. It is guided by its Founder, the priest Divo Barsotti, who is its Superior. He is helped locally by the Family Assistants and the Group Assistants.
He can have an Assistant General.
The Constitution shows that the doctrinal principles and the norms of comportment are wise and practical, and in all ways adhering to the Church's teaching, so as to include the nature, the purpose, the spirit and the character of the Monastic Family, and help it follow its institutional purposes. In all the members of the Family a profound ecclesiastical spirit is inculcated, a perfect adhesion to the Church, in whose bosom alone is it possible to be born and to live as God's child in loving and humble obedience to the ecclesiastical Magisterium for welcoming divine revelation and nourishing one's own faith drawn from its sources. Each member accepts from the Church its mission entrusted to them, to fulfil in humility that apostolic work which only in communion with the Church can be legitimate and effective.
Regarding the Constitutions, such as are contained in the text given to us, seeing that these are in perfect accord with the new Code of Canon Law (can. 298:1 and 304:1), in virtue of the authority of our pastoral position, WE RECOGNIZE AND APPROVE THE COMUNITÀ DEI FIGLI DI DIO as a 'PUBLIC ASSOCIATION OF THE FAITHFUL' (C.J.C. can 301:3) with its principle seat of government in Florence.
At the same time WE APPROVE ITS CONSTITUTIONS.
Upon all the members of the Association and in particular upon its Founder and present Superior we invoke from our heart the Blessing of God the Father Almighty, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Given at Florence, in our Archepiscopal Curia, the sixth day of January, 1984.
STATUTE
The 'Comunità dei figli di Dio' ['Community of God's Sons and Daughters'] is a 'Public Association of the Faithful' (article 312 of the Codex Juris Canonici)
The central seat, Casa San Sergio, is in Florence, via Crocifissalto 2. The Community was approved by ecclesiastical authority in the decree of the Archbishop of Florence, dated 6 January, 1984, which, given above, is an integral part of the present Statute.
NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE COMMUNITY
Article 1 - The 'Community of God's Sons and Daughters' unites in the Consecration to the Word, to the Virgin and to the Church, brothers and sisters who live in the world in different 'Branches'
The Community is one of four branches:
First Branch: brothers and sisters living the Consecration alone, in families, or in marriages.
Second Branch: living the Consecration in marriage, with Vows of Poverty, conjugal Chastity and Obedience.
Third Branch: living the Consecration with the Vows of Poverty, perfect Chastity and Obedience.
Fourth Branch: living the Consecration with the Vows of Poverty, perfect Chastity and Obedience in the Houses of Common Life of the Community.
Those consecrated persons living under vows in the II, III, IV Branches have their appropriate Rule.
2 - The Community of God's Sons and Daughters commits its members to living in the world the mystery of filial adoption in the perfection of charity. The ideal the Community desires is that of renewing, today, the miracle of the Primitive Church, the Early Church.
3 - The motto that sums up this call and which suggests this particular response is taken from Jesus's words: 'Ut sitis filii Patris vestri' ( 'Become Your Father's Sons and Daughters').
4 - Each should try to achieve this call, living in the greatest obedience to the action of the Holy Spirit, so as to be conformed to Christ and thus become praise to the Father. In this life the practice of the theological virtues is primary: a living spirit of faith, humble trust, to join the fullness of love.
5 - Each should follow their call in perfect adhesion to the Church, in whose womb only is it possible to be born and to live as God's Son or Daughter. Revelation will result from loving and humble obedience to the Magisterium, and true faith nourished with an ever more intimate knowledge of Scripture and Tradition. Thus one will live, in harmony to the mystery of the Church, the mystery of one's filial adoption, participating always more in the life of the liturgy and the sacraments.
Each in the Church can take up that mission entrusted to us to fulfil in humility the apostolic work which only through the Church can be legitimate and effective.
Nevertheless, already from our Baptism, we ought to be aware of our participation in the royal prophetic priesthood of Christ, and in consequence live our testimonies in a continuous oblation to the Lord and in service to our brothers and sisters.
6 - And it is above all in the act of prayer that the Community achieves the coming together of its members in the Offices of praise to God.
7 - Each one's response to our Christian vocation should give testimony to humanity of a presence of the Kingdom of God on earth, and it is principally with this testimony that we fufil the commandment of love that has for its object our brothers and sisters.
8 - No legal condition of life, neither social class, nor age, shall, of itself, exclude anyone from this divine vocation. The Community is open to whoever desires to dedicate their life sincerely and seriously, providing they accept our rules given them beforehand.
ASPIRANCY AND CONSECRATION
10 - The Community is open to all baptized persons who are over 16 years of age. None can be admitted to consecration, after being an aspirant, until they are 18. Aspirancy can last one or two years. This is because it is needful that each one in the Community has achieved first a certain human maturity.
The Aspirant is entrusted to the Responsible person for formation who, directly or through another, takes care of their formation and introduction to the Bible, the liturgy and to spiritual doctrine.
11 - Through the personal encounter with God the Aspirant ought to be guided and initiated into a true religious experience requiring the listening to the Word of God, meditating the Sacred Scriptures and intimate and personal prayer, helping to free them from all superficiality and dissipation and exhorting them to cultivate interior recollection, silence, spiritual discernment and acquire the sense of belonging to the new monastic family.
12 - For becoming part of the Community it is necessary that the Aspirant have a personal relationship with the person Responsible for formation or the one charged with it; a vital relationship, friendly and frequent, open and trusting. It is required that the Aspirant become gradually integrated into the life of the group and at the same time begin to take on greater tasks in community life.
13 - With Consecration one is bound for ever to the Community, taking on the task of perfecting Christian life. This perfection consists in love, which is required of the brothers and sisters according to the Statute and the Rule of the various Branches.
14 - Those who are Consecrated are obliged to recite the Four Prayers of the Community (Hear, O Israel; Our Father; Lauds of God; Beatitudes), to attend the weekly group encounters and the monthly gatherings. Also recommended is the celebration of liturgical prayer, at least some of its parts, the meditation on the Word of God each day, the monthly retreat and participation in the annual exercises. To all is counselled a Rule of Life - which precisely maps out times given to prayer - and of bringing this to the Superiors.
15 - The life of the Community is essentially a life of faith to be a life of fraternal love. It is based on a personal encounter with God; the capacity to open oneself to others: to our brothers and sisters, to the Church, to the world; one's readiness and interior freedom, the conditions for relation to God and to others.
CHARITY TO GOD
16 - The Gospel precepts - where our Lord teaches as the most active means for perfection, and the Church requires these in the canonically recognised religious life - continue in community as common directives for the spiritual life.
17 - For achieving this regality Christ regained for redeemed humanity, inner detachment is necessary, freeing us from the slavery to things and enabling us to worship God, in simplicity, in collectedness and in peace.
18 - Community life, freeing us from selfishness, will teach the undoing of our own judgement and our own will, and will make it easier to renounce ourselves in patience and humility, in order to live in love.
19 - The perfection of charity, to which our Consecration binds us, finds its most effective means, its most appropriate expression, in prayer, and it is in the life of prayer that it has its highest fulfilment.
20 - Each should live constantly in the Divine Presence, so that each of our acts may be truly a religious act, done in union with Christ.
21 - We warmly recommend to each one the invocation to Jesus' Name, the 'Jesus Prayer'. The calling on Christ will help us fulfil the divine precept of the Saviour: 'Pray without ceasing' (Luke 18.1).
22 - The beginning and the end of the life of each Consecrated person, as for that of the Chuch, is the Holy Sacrifice, the supreme act of Christ's life. Each one's prayer, inasmuch as it participates in the act of Christ, shall thus be praise to the heavenly Father, shall be continuous intercession and propitiation for the sins of the world.
23 - The Community binds its members to a life of prayer, which should be carried out continuously in constant devotion to God and in an offering of ourselves, lived concretely in every state of life.
24 - Of all prayer, most important is the participation in the Liturgy. Each should be conscious of our worthiness in being the voice of the whole Church in the recitation of the prayers of the Offices.
25 - Liturgical prayer cannot be truly lived if the Consecrated soul has not begun with a personal, truly lived prayer, in a spirit of faith and of charity. The Community will seek to help each soul in our pilgrimage of prayer.
26 - It is recommended that the Holy Scriptures, either the Hebrew Scriptures or the Greek Testament, be read daily, in the spirit of faith, recollection and humility . The reading of the Bible should be the usual nourishment of our daily meditation.
27 - For a prayer life to be possible it is necessary that each one quests recollection and renunciation. Each must protect silence and solitude as much as is possible.
28 - Epiphany and Transfiguration are particularly celebrated in the Community, because these feasts best express the ideal that we intend to live. Among Our Lady's feasts, the Maternity of Mary will be especially celebrated.
CHARITY TO NEIGHBOUR
29 - The Community has no mission other than that which Christ received from the Father: as Christ was sent by the Father to reveal himself to humanity and to begin the Kingdom of God, so does the Community - in each member and as a whole - participate in this mission. Each therefore shall be a 'faithful witness and true' to Christ; each accepting our own task, our own mission in the world and in the Church with the same spirit of Christ, and live it with the same love.
30 - Only to the measure that we become one among ourselves can we even live the mission of Christ. Community life itself must give witness to the love of God working in the world; therefore nothing can ever be done that is enough to promote it.
31 - Charity is One, even if its object be double: charity to God cannot be perfect if our love to our neighbour is not perfect. The love which we ought to have to each is that shown and taught by the Lord where he says: 'Love one another, just as I love you' (John 13.34), and 'None has greater love than the one who lays down his life for his friends' John 15.13). Be therefore patient and kind to all, preferring others before oneself, and regarding oneself the servant of all.
32 - As nothing is to be put before charity, so nothing is worse than discord and enmity. Everything must be sacrificed, even if it seems useful, even if it seems necessary, to avoid discord; we must accept and suffer anything to keep peace and charity inviolate.
33 - All who are Consecrated in the Community ought to sense ourselves under an obligation to witness to God's presence among people in our love for all. At work, at home, always and everywhere maintaing an attitude of serenity, being instruments of peace, being messengers of joy; avoiding any malevolent judgement, any hardness of heart; we are to be humble, tolerant, workers for peace, so that - as Jesus said - we can be recognized as God's children (Matthew 5.45).
34 - Each must love the Community as the family into which the Lord has called us; thus submission and obedience which each owes to the superiors can be transformed into intimate and true charity.
35 - Neighbourly charity is extended to all members of the Community; relations between us being lived in the Community's actions. Our houses have to be kept open, as much as is possible, to everybody belonging to our Community, with generous hospitality.
36 - Each is to feel bound to the progress of the others: whether through example; whether through fulfilling the Community's rules and in sincere love; whether in assiduous prayer made for one another.
37 - No one should feel in any way left out of that charity which unites us to each other. It is the duty of each to help the shyest, the weakest, the less gifted, to overcome any inferiority complex they might have and which could keep them in any way apart.
38 - The utmost charity shall be displayed to invalids. We should visit them often, if possible, take care of them so that they lack nothing they need; we must not refuse, to the extent that it is possible, also to nurse them.
39 - Death does not interrupt the bond of charity that is created by our Consecration (For the Masses of the Dead, see article 63.)
OF WORK
40 - Each ought to have work, not only for their own support, but also as a witness to the perfect life and as a service of love to their neighbour. A true testimony calls for serious preparation, continual updating, a true engaging of all one's capabilities.
41 - Even if that work takes a great part of the day, it must not become the most important task to which all else is sacrificed. Above all else there is for each the responsibility of living the union with God in continual prayer.
42 - Now we should so truly live our work as a religious undertaking, that the work itself becomes prayer.
THE COMMUNITY'S GOVERNMENT
43 - To achieve its purpose, the Community is organized into 'Families', brothers and sisters in each territorial region living in the various Branches. Each Family consists of Groups, made up of limited numbers of members.
The Delegation is a gathering of groups where the number of Consecrations is not sufficient for the constitution of a Family. It is guided by a Delegate named by the Presidency, who reports on the life of his Delegation.
The Community has a central government and a peripheral one. The CENTRAL GOVERNMENT includes
The Father General
The General Assistants
The Presidency
The Committee
The Council
PERIPHERALLY, in the Family, the government is entrusted to the
The Family Assistant
The Little Council
Helping the Family Assistant are the Vice-Family Assistant, the person Responsible for formation and the Group Assistants.
THE FATHER GENERAL
44 - The Father General is the Community's Superior, in so much as he has the task of governing, forming and assisting the entire Community spiritually. He is to be a priest, belonging to the Fourth Branch in Perpetual Vows, being in the Community at least five years and not being over 70 years of age.
The Father General is elected by secret ballot with an absolute majority from an assembly composed of
- The Council in office
- 5 Responsibles of the Houses of the Common Life of the Fourth Branch elected amongst the Responsibles themselves of the Houses
- 4 brothers and/or sisters of the Fourth Branch who live in the Houses of the Common Life elected from the members of these Houses themselves.
He will remain in office for six years and may be relected for one additional term only; any election for a third period of six years is valid only with the explicit approval of the Archbishop of Florence by decree pronounced within 90 days following that election. In the absence of such a decree the election of another Father General must take place within 30 days of the failure to achieve the archepiscopal approval. In each case this is carried out, except for the power the Archbishop of Florence to confirm the Father General according to Canon 317 of the C.J.C.
45 - The Father General
- is the legal representative of the Community.
- has the final decision concerning Consecration and Vows.
- has the power to dispense obligations deriving from Consecration and Vows according to Canon 1196:3 of the C.J.C.
- following necessary review by the Council, can proceed to expel a member from the Community itself according to the provisions subject to recourse to the norms of Canon 1732 and those following in the C.J.C.
- following obligatory but non-binding review by the Presidency can revoke any mandate of whatever title entrusted to him.
- nominates the Assistant General.
- nominates the Responsibles of the Houses of Common Life.
- nominates, with the consent of the General Assistants, the Family Assistants and the Responsibles of the Delegations.
- nominates, with the consent of the General Assistants, the Responsibles for formation in the Families, seeking the advice of the Family Asistants.
- nominates the Father Vicar, also a priest of the Fourth Branch, who only carries out the functions asked of him by the Father General and substitutes for him in his absence and/or illness. The nomination of the Father Vicar is for an indeterminate time and terminates with the nomination of the new Father General.
THE GENERAL ASSISTANTS
46 - The Assistant Generals, one male and one female, are nominated by the Father General and chosen from amongst those who are consecrated at least five years and who at the time of nomination have not reached their 70th year of age. Their charge lasts three years and they can be reconfirmed only for one further three year period.
The Assistant General who reaches 70 during the mandate, concludes it. The Assistant General fulfills the qualifications and the functions of greater superiority.
The General Assistants:
- help the Father General in governing the Community.
- are part of the Presidency
- periodically visit the Families.
THE PRESIDENCY
47 - The Presidency is the organ of direction and growth of the Community. The Presidency is responsible for all ordinary and extrordinary administrative acts, excepting in each case, the authorizations set out in the Civil Code and in the Codex Iuris Canonicis.
It is formed of the Father General and of two of the General Assistants.
The Presidency:
- Nominates the Vice-General Assistants, one male and one female, who assist the General Assistants, and who substitute for them in case of absence or illness.
- Nominates the Presidents of the Committees.
- Examines all the proposed arguments to be discussed in Council and draws up the agenda for that same Council.
- Proposes the Calendar of Visitations to the Families on the part of the major superiors to the Council.
- Prepares the budget and the accounts to present to the Committee. The Presidency nominates the components of the 'central service of the Community' (secretariat, archive, printing and correspondence office, library, editing of the Notiziario, financial office) which assist it.
THE COMMITTEE
48 - The Committee consists of the Presidency and of three members elected from the Council by themselves.
It provides communication between the Presidency and the Council.
It sees to the ordinary dealings of the Community and carries out the execution of what the Council decides, approves the financial accounts of the annual budget.
The Committee ceases when the Council ceases.
THE COUNCIL
49 - The Council is the consultive and deliberative organ of the Community.
It consists of:
- direct members
- members nominated by the Father General
- elected members
a) Direct members are:
- the Father General who calls it and who presides over it
- the two General Assistants
- The Father Vicar
- the two Vice-General Assistants
b) Nominated members:
The Father General nominates three Consecrated persons from all those consecrated in the Community.
c) Elected Members are:
- five Family Assistants elected by secret ballot from all the Family Assistants.
- seven Consecrated persons chosen by the Presidency from those proposed by each single Family. The Family indicate to the Presidency the nomination of a Consecrated person of the Family who is next elected by the majority of those of that Family; in case of a tie, the one who has seniority in the Community is elected.
- two members, one male elected by the brothers and one female elected by the sisters who live in the houses of common life.
The elected members and those nominated by the Father General remain in office for three years, and can be reconfirmed. Eligible members ought to be over 25 years of age, but under 70, and be Consecrated at least for three years.
50 - The Council is called by the Father General at least one time a year and is validly consituted when there are present at least two thirds of the direct members. It deliberates with majority rule of those present on all the agenda items presented by the Presidency. On extraordinary items (for example, the expulsion of a member of the Community) or of particular importance it is necessary that there be a clear majority of the direct membership.
In the case of a tied vote, that of the Father General prevails.
The Council:
1) Deliberates on the constitution of a new Family and Delegation and defines its territorial region.
2) Elects amongst its councillors three members for the Committee.
3) At the first new Council meeting nominates the secretary of the Council, who takes minutes and distributes them.
4) Examines and approves:
- the proposals formulated by the committees.
- the calendar for retreats and pilgrimages,
- the calendar for the visits of the Superiors proposed by the Presidency.
- the financial accounts (in the 4 months preceding the beginning of the social year).
- takes action on the budget approved by the Committee.
THE FAMILY ASSISTANT
51 - The Family Assistant is the local superior of the Family. He is nominated by the Father General for a period of three years and can be reconfirmed in office one more term. The Family Assistant to be nominated must be Consecrated at least for three years and not be over 70 years of age when nominated. He is the link between the Family and the Presidency.
52 - The Family Assistant:
- updates the Presidency on the life of the Family.
- visits the groups, organizes the monthly gatherings and retreats.
- calls and presides over the Little Council.
- starts new groups, following approval from the Presidency, and defines their composition.
- admits Aspirants.
- decides with the Responsible person on the formation to the admission of the Aspirant to Consecration.
- authorizes, on the proposal of the Responsible for formation, the Aspirant to attend the meetings of the group and the monthly Gatherings.
- for valid reasons he can dispense, from time to time, the obligations of the Consecration.
- maintains contact with the local Church and informs the Bishop, in person or in writing, of the life of the Community.
The Family Assistant is responsible for the library, the archive, the local treasury and the treasury for Requiem Masses. While he may delegate these tasks to others, he reports on them directly to the Presidency.
53 - The Family Assistant, together with the Father General, nominates the Vice-Family Assistant, the Assistants of the groups, the treasurer, and what Delegates there may be of the area, and explain to them the powers delegated to them by the Family Assistant. Their nomination and delegated tasks can be revoked, modified without a reason needing to be given and be immediately carried out.
THE VICE-FAMILY ASSISTANT
54 - The Family Assistant nominates the Vice-Family Assistant so that he can work with him actively in the good governing of the Family. He can substitute for the Family Assistant in case of absence and/or illness. The Vice-Family Assistant ought to be consulted by the Assistant in issues inherent in governing the Family. When the mandate of the Family Assistant ends so does that of the Vice-Assistant.
THE GROUP ASSISTANT
55 - The Group Assistant is nominated by the Family Assistant, remaining in office three years and cannot be reconfirmed. A Group Assistant can even be a member of the common life who is not a priest. He has the direction and responsibility of the progress of the group which is formed from a restricted number of members. The group meets weekly to listen to the Word of God, liturgical prayer, spiritual reading and meditation, exchanging of news and of reflections.
The Group Assistant is responsible for the execution of the directives given by the Family Assistant, leading the meetings in such a way as to encourage the active participation of the members with whom he maintains personal contact. He gives a monthly account to the Family Assistant on the life of the group.
RESPONSIBLE PERSON FOR FORMATION
56 - In each Family the spiritual formation of the Aspirants is entrusted to one or more persons Responsible for their formation. He is nominated by the Father General following consultation with the Family Assistant. The duration of the task is three years. It can be reconfirmed. Normally he delegates to another the formation of each Aspirant, though he alone is responsible to the Presidency and the Father General. He proposes to the Family Assistant when the Aspirants can attend the monthly Gathering and the group meetings. Together with the Family Assistant he decides on the admission of the Aspirant to Consecration.
THE LITTLE COUNCIL
57 - The Little Council helps the Family Assistant in carrying out his functions. It is called at least two times a year and is presided over by the Family Assistant:
- to prepare the budget and the verify the life of the Family.
- propose initiatives for the following social year.
The Little Council is composed of 5-9 members according to the size of the Family and is composed of: the Family Assistant, the Vice-Family Assistant, and whatever Delegates they are of the region. Some members are elected from the Consecrated persons in the Family, others are nominated by the Assistant, but not a greater number than those elected. The Little Council votes according to majority rule of those present on all questions that come before it from the Family Assistant, whose vote prevails in case of a tie. The mandate of the Little Council ceases with the mandate of the Family Assistant.
THE COMMITTEES
58 - The Committees are organs of study, of programming, and of consultation in the service of the Community in specific sectors of competence. They are designed to increase the monastic and spiritual life of the Community and of its members. The principle tasks of the Committees are to formulate organic proposals on material and subjects of their competence. The proposals formulated by the Committees ought to be placed before the Council for approval. A President is nominated by the Presidency to direct the Committee, and remains in office for three years; this is renewable. The Presidents choose members of their respective Committees with the approval of the Presidency. The Father General can entrust the Committee with the presence of at least one member of the Fourth Branch. Each Committee is formed of at least three members and the proposals made to the Council come from the majority of those present.
The Formation, Culture, and Family Committees are pemanent. Other Committees can be formulated by the Council which remain active for a determined time. Of these last those concerning study and consultation come to be assigned at the discretion of the Council and can be dismissed by the Council itself.
59 - The Formation Committee uses guideplans for designing spiritual, scriptural, liturgical and community formation, to transmit the spirituality of the Community to the Aspirants, the Consecrated persons and to those preparing to make the Vows.
60 - The Culture Committee is for the service to the life of prayer in the Community. These are its defined subjects: the Bible, the teaching of the Magisterium, bringing the catechism and theology up to date, Liturgy.
61 - The Family Committee studies the problems of families. It proposes ways for the spiritual growth of engaged couples, of parents, and of the relations beween husbands and wives and of those with their children. It is concerned above all with the spirituality of the Consecrated married couples. The Presidency of the Family Committee can be entrusted to a married couple.
62 - All those who are responsible for governance in the Community or those who are part of its organs of government are bound for ever to secrecy on what they learn that is intimate to the souls amongst whom they come to be.
Each is bound to silence about what concerns the inner life of the Community.
REQUIEM MASSES
63 - When a Consecrated person belonging to the Community's first three branches dies, three Masses shall be celebrated: one in the mother House, one by the Family and one by the group to which they belong.
For the Consecrated persons belonging to the Fourth Branch the following Masses shall be celebrated: one in the mother House, one in the Houses of the Common Life and one in the House to which they belong.
In the case of the death of the Father General or of the General Assistants the Community will celebrate five Requiem Masses.
On the occasion of the death of a Consecrated person in a Family, each belonging to that same Family is required to participate in the Requiem Mass.
64 - Each year, for 25 years, on the anniversary of the death of a Consecrated person of the Community a Requiem Mass shall be celebrated by the family to which that person belonged in the first three Branches, on the part of all the houses of the Common Life for the one belonging to the Fourth Branch.
For all those who died more than 25 years ago there shall be a monthly Requiem Mass celebrated in the mother house.
65 - In order to comply with this obligation in each Family there shall be set up and maintained, from voluntary offerings, a treasury for the Requiem Masses.
The treasurer of the fund for ordinary spending will also be the treasurer for the treasury fund for the Requiem Masses. He will therefore keep a register of the applicable Requiem Masses. At the same time the Houses of the Fourth Branch will see to it, with the superfluity of the balance, that they set up and maintain a common treasury fund for the Requiem Masses. The treasurer of the common treasury fund for the Fourth Branch will also be the treasurer of these treasury funds. He will keep therefore a register of the applicable Requiem Masses.
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION AND ENDOWMENT
66 - The Community is not to be wealthy and must govern itself economically with required and voluntary contributions.
The economic administration of the Community is entrusted to a 'Financial Office' with executive competence and directly answerable to the Presidency. Its members are nominated by the Presidency for three-year terms and the office is renewable. The Office is formed of the Father General who guides it and of two members who function as financial treasurers. These have the right to sign cheques, for the operation of spending according to the budget of the Council. The two financial treasurers, each for their full operation, are obliged to communicate their accounts every three months to the Presidency.
The Financial Office takes care of the of the financial and administrative organization of the Community, keeps the records necessary for their work, conserves and improves the endowment; takes care of the budget and of bookkeeping. They can avail themselves of external consultants where necessary.
67 - The Community's endowment consists of moveables and and buildings; donations, gifts, and other things which enlarge its heritage. We consider possessions of the Community only what is owned by the Community.
The financial year coincides with the social one and goes from 14 September of one year to 13 September of the next. For fiscal purposes the Community year coincides with the solar year.
68 - The Community sustains itself with the quotas of Consecrated persons such as are established by the Council. A percentage of them, being established annually by the Council, will be drawn by the Family, and from the free offerings, combined together to constitute the treasury fund of the Family.
In each Family a fund for ordinary expenses will be set up and maintained. The Family's treasurer, who oversees expenditures and keeps accounts, registering receipts and disbursments, will present the accounts to the Family Assistant each time it is requested. At the Family Assistant's end of term of office, that of the treasurer also ends.
69 - The Houses of Common Life have an autonomous administration and their own treasury fund.
TRANSITORY NORMS
70 - The norms of the Statute regarding the ordering and governing of the Community, in case of grave necessity, can always be reformed by an act of the Father Founder. The Father Founder, as long as he wants, participates in the organs of central government of the Community during his natural life.
LETTER FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF FLORENCE, CARDINAL SILVANO PIOVANELLI, IN WHICH HE APPROVES THE REVISION OF THE STATUTE
ARCHBISHOPRIC OF FLORENCE
Florence, 25 April, 1998
Dearest Don Serafino,
I reply to your note concerning the approval, to the best of my competence, of the emendments you have approved to your Statute.
With the same authority with which in 1984 I recognized and approved the Comunità dei figli di Dio as a 'public association of the faithful' which reaches throughout various regions of Italy and which has, at present, its principle seat of government in Florence; from the experience of these past fourteen years, which have seen you develop and grow, research and labour, as is right in every authentic life, I confirm and increase my blessing upon your experience as 'followers of Christ' and give my 'nihil obstat' to the new Statute approved by the Community's Council, after more than a year of work, with the consensus of the Father Founder, don Divo Barsotti, dated 11 May, 1997.
I add 'nihil obstat' and my blessing also for the 'Rules' of the three forms of life carried out by the Community: in the knowledge of the great and special gift that is, in the Church, the consecrated life in the faith of the evangelical counsels; in the recognition of the charism granted by the Lord to the Father Founder, Don Divo Barsotti; in the obligation requested of you, to carry out gradually, but without delay, those adaptations and those norms which the Congregation has suggested for the Consecrated life for these to be pontifically recognised; in the renewed resolution to walk according to the Spirit so that it may shine in your life, for the good of the Church, that particular manifestation of the Spirit which has already been given you.
May the Holy Spirit be in your looking: so that you recognize the Risen Lord in the man in the garden at the Resurrection and in whomever your meet in the house and in the street, especially if poor and suffering.
May the Holy Spirit be in your listening: so that you may hear and welcome the mandate to announce the Risen Jesus to Peter and the other apostles, and to those in the Church and who are scattered throughout the world.
May the Holy Spirit be in your loving: the love of God that is already in your hearts through the Holy Spirit, that has already been given to you (Romans 5.5), through which you can respond to the love of Christ with 'his' love and so that you may love your neighbour with that same heart.
I bless you with all my heart. so that you may be potentially strengthened in the Spirit and that the Christ live through faith in your heart and that you can know the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding.
[Signed]
+ Silvano Cardinal Piovanelli, Archbishop
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