The Development of the Fraternal Economy in the Capuchin-Franciscan Order: The Thought of John Corriveau, OFM. Cap.

1
The Development of the Fraternal Economy in the
Capuchin-Franciscan OrderThe Thought of John
Corriveau, OFM. Cap.

• David B. Couturier, OFM. Cap.,
• Ph.D, DMin., Lic. Psych.

2
Structural Conversion
3
Social Sin

• 118. Certain sins, constitute by their very
  object a direct assault on one's neighbour. Such
  sins in particular are known as social sins.
  Social sin is every sin committed against the
  justice due in relations between individuals,
  between the individual and the community, and
  also between the community and the individual.
  Social too is every sin against the rights of the
  human person, starting with the right to life,
  including that of life in the womb, and every sin
  against the physical integrity of the individual
  every sin against the freedom of others,
  especially against the supreme freedom to believe
  in God and worship him and every sin against the
  dignity and honour of one's neighbour.
• Every sin against the common good and its
  demands, in the whole broad area of rights and
  duties of citizens, is also social sin. In the
  end, social sin is that sin that refers to the
  relationships between the various human
  communities. These relationships are not always
  in accordance with the plan of God, who intends
  that there be justice in the world and freedom
  and peace between individuals, groups and
  peoples227.
• 119. The actions and attitudes opposed to the
  will of God and the good of neighbour, as well as
  the structures arising from such behaviour,
  appear to fall into two categories today on the
  one hand, the all-consuming desire for profit,
  and on the other, the thirst for power, with the
  intention of imposing one's will upon others. In
  order to characterize better each of these
  attitudes, one can add the expression at any
  price'230.

4
The Insights and Work of John Corriveau, OFM
Cap.,

• Minister General of the Capuchin
• Order- 1994-2006
• Bishop of Nelson, BC, Canada
• 2008-

5
The Fraternal Economy A Pastoral Psychology of
Franciscan Economics
6
The Fraternal Economy

• What do we mean by a fraternal economy in
  Capuchin-Franciscan literature?
• What are the psychodynamics of Gospel
  brotherhood?
• Is the belief in a fraternal world a fundamental
  delusion?
• Corriveaus conceptualization of the fraternal
  economy is decidedly deliberative, willful and
  intentional. He conceives of it. as a conscious
  choice and a conscious break from ones inherited
  structures (but research shows that) Victims are
  more vulnerable not less when the belief in a
  just world is strongest.

7
The Fraternal economy (cont)

• The Fraternal Economy and the Development of a
  Corporate Imagination A Socio-Analytic
  Perspective.
• The Development of Communities of International
  Compassion.
• Towards a Pastoral Psychology of Franciscan
  Economics

8
The Influence of JPII and a Theology of Communion

• Away from a theology of asceticism and
  negation/ sacrifice
• From personal perfection to communion

9
A radical shift in Capuchin experience.

•  
• Our entire spirituality and tradition have
  highlighted poverty, viewing it especially under
  the ascetical, individual aspect. ...
  Nevertheless, the renewed sense of brotherhood,
  the worldwide spread of the Order, and new
  problems in our society invite us to reconsider
  and deepen the meaning of our gospel poverty in
  fraternity, specifically from the communal,
  institutional, and structural point of view.2
• 2Capuchin Order of Friars Minor, Sixth Plenary
  Council, 4

10
The Changing Context

• The Working Poor of Western Europe as Model
  of Franciscan Poverty
• Prior to 1950, the Capuchin Order was
  overwhelmingly centered in Europe - particularly
  in Western Europe - and in North America.
• Only about 5 of the brothers were members of
  autonomous circumscriptions in the poorer
  southern hemisphere of our world, none of them in
  Africa.

11
Identification with the working poor of Europe

• Given the statistics, it is not surprising that
  the Constitutions of 1925 describe a brotherhood
  living in close solidarity with the working class
  people of Western Europe. Like the working poor
  of the time, brothers lived from the fruits of
  each days labor
•  
• Only a few days provision of the necessities of
  life that can be obtained from day to day by
  begging, shall be made in our friaries.3
• 3Constitutions OFMCap., 1925, 118

12
Direct dependence upon the working poor

• Like the occasional day laborers of their age,
  the brothers held no offices to which fixed
  salaries were attached. They lived from the
  offerings given for their occasional services as
  preachers and confessors, spontaneous offerings
  given by the faithful in their chapels and
  churches, manual labor in gardens and orchards,
  and from the quest. The fact that the livelihood
  of the brothers depended upon spontaneous
  offerings in their chapels and, in particular,
  on the quest, meant that they were directly
  dependent upon the working poor themselves. This
  forged a strong bond of solidarity between the
  Capuchins and the working poor.

13
Economic Solidarity

• Economic solidarity within the brotherhood was
  described in this way
•  
• Perfect common life shall be religiously and
  constantly observed. ... All goods, emoluments,
  gifts - in a word, everything the religious
  acquires by any title whatever - must be
  consigned to the superior ... so that all shall
  have in common, food, clothing and everything
  that is necessary.4
•  
• 4Constitutions OFMCap., 1925, 111.

14
Euro-centric

• The fact that 91 of the autonomous
  circumscriptions of the Order were centered in
  Europe and North America ensured economic
  equality among them. The prescriptions of the
  Constitutions whereby missions were totally
  integrated into the province ensured that the
  vast majority of the brothers in Asia-Oceania,
  Africa and Latin America, by reason of the rules
  of common life, enjoyed equal access to the goods
  of the province with their brothers in Europe and
  North America. Thus, there was reasonable
  economic equality between Provinces as well as
  among the brothers of the northern and southern
  hemispheres.

15
The Disappearing Model 1950-1970

• The economic wealth of the world multiplied. Yet,
  this wealth was not equally distributed. North
  America and Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented
  prosperity which had the effect of increasing
  the economic gulf separating the northern and
  southern hemispheres. Public and private welfare
  programs multiplied, particularly in Western
  Europe and in North America. Those programs
  ensured the basic needs of children, education,
  health care and old age. For the first time in
  human history entire peoples were given security
  for the future. This increased exponentially the
  disparity between the northern and southern
  hemispheres. Generally, southern nations lacked
  the capability of guaranteeing such rights for
  their citizens.

16
Capuchin poverty is different

• The working poor of 1950 were among the
  beneficiaries of the social and economic changes
  in Western Europe and North America.
• With the disappearance of the working poor of
  1950, the model for Capuchin communal poverty
  was also broken.
• Like the working poor of 1950, the brothers
  accepted the social improvements of their age
•  
• Superiors may make use of insurance policies or
  forms of social security where this is prescribed
  by ecclesiastical or civil authority for
  everybody or for certain professions, or where
  such things are commonly used by the poor of the
  region.5
• 5Constitutions OFMCap., 1968, 52.

17
Investments!

• For the first time, the concept of investment
  enters the Capuchin vocabulary.6
•  
• There is a real change in the ordinary means
  whereby the brothers sustain themselves. For the
  first time the Constitutions speak of entitled
  income, especially salaries and pensions
•  
• All goods, including salaries and pensions ...
  shall be handed over for the use of the
  fraternity.7
• 6Cf. Constitutions OFMCap., 1968, 56.
• 7Constitutions OFMCap., 1968, 51.

18
No longer dependent on the poor

• As a consequence, the quest rapidly disappeared
  and with it an important bond of solidarity with
  the people. The brothers were no longer
  evidently and directly dependent upon the people
  - particularly the poor - for their support.

19
Development of ministries

• There was a very rapid development of ministries
  among those excluded from the prosperity of the
  age. Works for the social progress of people were
  seen as an integral part of evangelization. The
  Order expressed its solidarity with the new poor
  by works of justice and compassion

20
Our task is to relieve the needs of the poor

• We ought to live in conscious solidarity with
  the countless poor of the world, and by our
  apostolic labor lead the Christian people to
  works of justice and charity which further the
  development of peoples. 8
•  
• Freed from the empty cares of this world and
  cooperating with Divine Providence, we should
  regard it as our duty to relieve the needs of the
  poor.9
• 8Constitutions OFMCap., 1968, 47.
• 9Constitutions OFMCap., 1968, 87.

21
We become benefactors of the poor

• Sustained and supported by the working poor of
  1950, the Order became the benefactor of the new
  poor of the 1970s. This changed our
  relationship to the peoples around us.

22
Structural Economic Inequality Between Brothers

• Between 1950 and 2006, the demographics of the
  Order changed dramatically. In 1950, 91 of the
  autonomous circumscriptions and probably 95 of
  the brothers of the Order were centered in
  Western Europe or North America. In 2006, 40
  percent of the autonomous circumscriptions of the
  Order and 48 of the brothers of the Order were
  in Asia-Oceania, Africa and Latin America. The
  statistics do not indicate the equally dramatic
  increase in numbers in Central and Eastern
  Europe. If these are included, 56 of the
  brothers of the Order are now juridic members of
  circumscriptions outside Western Europe and North
  America. With some exceptions, these
  circumscriptions all have dramatically less
  capability to respond to the needs of the
  brothers and the ministries of their region than
  do those in Western Europe and North America.

23
Structural disparities revealed..

• Until 1970, the vast majority of brothers in
  Asia, Africa and Latin America were juridic
  members of Western European or North American
  Provinces. Therefore, the normal rules of common
  life ensured an equitable distribution of goods
  ensuring the well-being of all the brothers and
  their ministries. With the dramatic shift of
  membership toward the economically disadvantaged
  regions of our world this is no longer the case.
  There now exist structural economic disparities
  between Provinces of our Order.

24
What happens to brotherhood

• If structural economic disparities are allowed to
  persist between Provinces of the Order,
  brotherhood will be severely undermined and the
  mission of our Order in the Church and society
  will be compromised.

25
Two Models of Poverty

• Despite the momentous social changes of the
  previous fifty years, the Order continued to
  cling to the concept of the working poor to
  define its poverty. As the working poor of
  Western Europe and North American became the new
  middle class, the friars followed their patrons.
  However, the working poor of Asia, Africa and
  most of Latin America did not experience the same
  transformation. Therefore, two models persisted
  within the same religious family a model in
  Western Europe and North America centered on the
  lower middle class a model in Asia, Latin
  America and, particularly Africa, where poverty
  was identified with misery.

26
Poverty and the embrace of security

• The Franciscan scholar, David Flood, OFM has
  argued convincingly that the poverty of the early
  Franciscan fraternity grew out of a conscious
  effort on the part of Francis and his early
  companions to separate themselves from the social
  and economic life of Assisi as represented in the
  civil charters of 1203 and 1210.14 Flood
  maintains that the Earlier Rule was progressively
  crafted as a response to a society and an economy
  which excluded the poor and legislated privilege.
  Therefore, the poverty of the early
  Franciscan fraternity was not the embrace of
  insecurity!
• 14See Franciscan Digest, Vol. IX, No. 2, June
  1999.

27
Economic choices

• Rather, Francis sought to establish and give
  witness to a new security based on human
  solidarity rooted in the gospel rather than a
  security founded on wealth and privilege.
  Furthermore, Flood points out that this new
  fraternity founded on the gospel became a source
  of peace for the world. Non-use of money,
  non-appropriation of goods, manual work for
  support, begging in case of necessity these are
  economic choices more than ascetical choices!
• These are the economic choices which Francis
  made to build relationships among his brothers
  and between his brothers and all peoples and
  creatures of the earth .

28
Francis and interdependence

• The sense of brotherhood among people (CPOVI,
  1), communion, was the driving force of his
  choices of poverty, austere simplicity was the
  consequence!
• Francis and Clare, enthralled by the Divine
  Mystery revealed in the incarnation and the
  cross, abandoning themselves to the
  God-Who-Is-Love, joyfully embraced the
  contingency of human life. They embraced as the
  first logical corollary interdependence with all
  persons (images of God-Who-Is-Love) and
  creatures. Like trapeze artists, they made the
  high jump without a net trusting totally in
  God-Who-Is-Love.

29
Solidarity

• Solidarity is the center-piece of a fraternal
  economy. In his Encyclical, Sollicitudo rei
  socialis, Pope John Paul II defined solidarity as
  a moral and Christian virtue. As a moral virtue,
  solidarity is a firm and persevering
  determination to commit oneself to the common
  good.18 This moral virtue helps us to see the
  other - whether a person, people or nation -
  ... on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of
  life to which all are equally invited by God. 19
  As a Christian virtue, solidarity sees that
  ones neighbor is ... the living image of God
  ... who must be loved ... with the same love
  with which the Lord loves him or her. 20
•  
• 18SRS, 38.
• 19SRS, 39.
• 20SRS, 40.

30
Globalization and its discontents

• Globalization has produced many blessings for our
  world. The transformation of the Capuchin Order
  from a brotherhood centered until 1970 on Western
  Europe and North America to a truly worldwide
  brotherhood in 2008 would not have been humanly
  possible without the globalizing effects of
  modern communications and travel. The global
  economy provides large segments of the worlds
  population with greater security and well-being
  than at any other period of human history. At the
  same time, solidarity and mutual dependence are
  goals which are contrary to basic tenets of the
  global economy which control much of the life and
  thinking in our world.

31
Goals of the modern economy

• Increase wealth
• Make a profit
• Profit is increased as dependence is created. The
  more others depend upon ones goods and services,
  the higher the price that can be demanded!
  Dependence in the global economy is not something
  to be celebrated as the consequence of being
  human and redeemed, and ... a right (see ER IX,
  8). In the global economy dependence is feared
  because it leaves people weak and exposed! In
  the global economy the discovery of the
  dependence of the other is not an invitation to
  service (see ER IX, 10), but rather an
  opportunity to exploit others for greater
  personal profit and advantage.

32
The efficiency of the global economy

• The efficiency of the global economy is built
  upon the concentration of power and the triumph
  of competition. This applies primarily to
  economic relationships. However, it produces a
  mentality and attitudes which go far beyond the
  world of economics one which affects all areas
  of human life and relationships. Consequently,
  the approach to life nourished by the global
  economy rarely produces unity and communion. We
  live in a world of ever increasing wealth joined
  to ever increasing insecurity. Global
  economic forces and the philosophies that direct
  them promote insecurity and violence. .
  Poverty was privatized in the rich northern
  world in the 1950's when the working poor
  disappeared and was replaced by a group of
  individuals who fell through the social nets.
  In the closing decades of the 2nd millennium
  violence has been privatized. The real threat
  to world peace is no longer the struggle between
  global economic and social systems. Rather,
  those individuals and isolated groups who feel
  alienated, excluded and left out of the global
  economy respond with acts of violence and
  terrorism leading to the destabilization of all
  of human society

33
An interdependent world..

• In direct contrast to the basic principles of the
  global economy, solidarity and mutual dependence
  consciously seek to create an interdependent
  world since such a vision is more in keeping with
  a scriptural view of life (see Genesis 1-3).
  This view is also closer to that sublime height
  of most exalted poverty described by Francis in
  Chapter Six of the Rule. It is highly
  significant and suggestive that Francis describes
  the "sublime height of most exalted poverty" not
  in Chapter Four of the Rule where he describes
  our relationship to money (the Capuchin
  Constitutions characterize this chapter as the
  chapter on "Poverty"), but in Chapter Six where
  he describes the human relationships which will
  result from this new economy (the Capuchin
  Constitutions characterize this chapter as a
  chapter on "Brotherhood").

34
Solidarity is all about choices.

• In Sollicitudo rei socialis, Pope John Paul II
  reminds us that solidarity is not a vague
  compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes
  of so many people, both near and far (n. 38).
  Solidarity is not some vague, ineffective
  stirring of pity that one might feel in front of
  a television set at the sight of earthquake
  victims or scenes of victims of human rights
  abuses. We may feel slightly guilty or even angry
  but nothing happens! Solidarity makes something
  happen because it is about choices that flow from
  a firm and persevering determination to commit
  oneself to the common good in the words of
  Pope John Paul II. The mind-set that gives rise
  to such determination is the knowledge that we
  are all really responsible for all (ibid).
  Choices need to be arrived at after careful
  consideration and investigation of the facts. The
  work of arriving at choices can be difficult in
  the case of individuals. For a community, it
  involves hard work to arrive at serious,
  deliberate choices.

35
Our economic choices.

• The meaning and role of money and the way in
  which private property is viewed in todays
  society are different than what they were when
  the early Franciscans made their radical economic
  choices. However, the fundamental choice of
  Francis has the same compelling necessity
  withdraw from the world of greed, ambition and
  competition which underlie the economic choices
  of our day in favor of unequivocal choices for an
  interdependent world.

36
The Order recrafts its economic choices

• Beginning with the Sixth Plenary Council, the
  Order has attempted to re-craft its economy based
  on operational choices which will foster
  interdependence not only within our local,
  provincial and international fraternities, but in
  the wider context of our societies.

37
The Principles of the Fraternal Economy
38
Redeemed Relationships

• St. Francis did not change the economic
  structures of his day. However, he established a
  mode of being for his brothers which posited
  their security, not upon the amassing of wealth,
  but upon the redeemed relationships which they
  established among themselves and with the people
  around them. This had drastic effect on their
  relationships with their neighbours as is
  attested by the same Letter from Porto Alegre
•  
• In the Legend of Three Companions, Francis
  explains to the bishop of Assisi that his
  renunciation of worldly goods was not primarily
  related to penance and asceticism. Rather,
  Francis rejected material possessions so as not
  to have to defend them with military arms and
  thus destroy his peaceful relationships with men
  and women (Legend, 35). The austerity of the
  Franciscan life, therefore, was the consequence
  of a radical option to live in relationship with
  everyone and to recreate the bonds of communion
  among all people and with God.34
• 34Ibid.

39
A new way of serving the poor

• Apply the principles of the fraternal economy in
  our ministries, and, in a special way, as we work
  with poor for their empowerment.35

40
Economic choices through the fraternity

• The poor are the primary victims of a global
  economy built upon unfettered competition and the
  concentration of wealth. This economy keeps the
  poor in a condition of perpetual dependence which
  robs them of hope. Works of direct aid to poor
  people should aim to connect people in need with
  people of means in a fraternal economy (CPOVII,
  51). Mutual dependence builds the
  brotherhood/sisterhood of the Kingdom. The
  Capuchin fraternity must be a mutual point of
  reference creating trust and brother/sisterhood
  between the poor and persons of means. This is
  one reason why assistance should not go from
  individual Capuchin to individual poor
  person, but always through the fraternity (VII
  PCO, 51

41
The fraternal principles

• We can build solidarity among the poor by
  involving them in a fraternal economy built upon
  the same principles as that of our brotherhood
  transparency, participation, equity and
  austerity. When social ministries are deprived of
  these fraternal principles, they can create
  destructive competition between the poor, each
  individual or family seeking its proper advantage
  without regard for others. This danger is
  particularly present in the poorest countries
  which suffer chronic lack of economic resources.
  Economic development springing from an economy of
  greed and competition divides the poor and has
  failed miserably to change their condition. We
  must use different values.

42
Its not a question of economics.

• Those who think that this is just a question of
  economics or of money are absolutely wrong. It
  is a new way of relating with the people of the
  earth. It is a challenge to the most profound
  conversion within the Order. A fraternal
  economy prioritizing the building of
  brother/sisterhood in our world rather than the
  creation and protection of wealth. This is a key
  insight which has not been present in our Order
  since the time of Francis. Why? Because it
  flows from the new ecclesiology of the church.
  It is a new development in the Order. It pushes
  the Order beyond what it has been. It moves the
  Order in a new direction.