Franciscan Mission
The Franciscan Mission is the international aid organization of the German Franciscan Province of St. Elisabeth . It goes back to the Franciscan Mission Society founded in Werl in 1907. With the help of donations, the Franciscan Mission supports development and human rights projects, especially in Northeast Brazil, East Africa, Bolivia and Vietnam. There are offices in Dortmund and Munich .
history
founding
In 1907 the Franciscan Wenzeslaus Straussfeld OFM founded the Franciscan Mission Association in the Saxon Franciscan Province in Werl . The main task of the association was initially to support and expand the Shandong mission of the Franciscans in China. In 1922, Hilarion Rieck OFM was appointed Missions Procurator (head of the association and representative of the Order Province for missions), and donors were mobilized across the country under his direction. The Werler Missions-Verein also found effective support from the General Administration of the Order in Rome.
Mission term
While the missionaries were still interested in Christianization at the beginning of the century, after the Second World War the will to enable all people to live a life without hunger and oppression became increasingly important. The “ option for the poor ” became a central concept. Another important factor in modern missionary work is the "sustainability" of project work, with education and training projects forming the most important basis for helping people to help themselves. And the thought of give and take has also become an integral part of mission. The encounter with other values and cultures reveals the wealth and beauty of the peoples and people. The poor have something to give away that the rich lack - and vice versa. Modern mission is no longer a one-way street.
Brazil
In 1950 the Franciscan Province of St. Anthony in Recife their territorial rights over the northern Brazilian Franciscan provinces of Maranhão and Piauí of the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross. Since the missionaries expelled from China in 1948 were looking for a new field of work, the then Provincial Dietmar Westermeyer OFM initiated the foundation of the Franciscan mission in northeastern Brazil in 1951 . In March the first missionaries came to Maranhão and Piauí. In the following years six convents and eight parishes were founded in São Luís , Piripiri , Bacabal , Vitorino Freire , Lago da Pedra , São Luís Gonzaga and Teresina . The Brazil Mission received a strong increase in personnel in the 1960s. 19 Franciscan Brothers came from Germany to secure the work on site - many still work there today and take care of the congregations, the numerous street children and school projects as well as the family agricultural schools.
Africa
The roots of the Africa mission go back to 1983, when the first three German missionaries set out for Nairobi : Heinrich Gockel OFM, who had previously headed the Franciscan Mission as procurator from 1975 to 1983, Ulrich Gellert OFM (from the then Franciscan province of Colonia ) and Hermann Borg OFM, who is still working as an Africa missionary in Kenya. Together with an international group of Franciscan missionaries, the first parish was set up in Subukia ( Nakuru diocese ) and later the first convent in Nairobi. Church services with families, young people and university students, but also encounters with refugees, lepers and poor people showed the way to the tasks in pastoral work.
In 1994 the bloody civil war in Rwanda shook the world. So Rwanda moved into the work area of the Franciscan Mission. In close cooperation with the Croatian Franciscan Vjeko Curic OFM, who was then active in Kivumu / Rwanda , projects in this region of the country were supported. Since then, the scope of the Franciscan Mission has been expanded considerably. The Franciscan Mission now has a large number of projects in Rwanda, Uganda and the DR Congo .
Bolivia
In 1951 the Bavarian Franciscans were entrusted with the vicariate "Ñuflo de Chávez" in the lowlands of Bolivia. In 1984 the Franciscans merged to form a "Bolivian Order Province". Father Miguel Brems, a Bavarian Franciscan, was elected first Provincial. He and the Bolivian confreres asked the then Franciscan Missions Association in Bavaria for help so that the new Bolivian province could develop and fulfill its tasks. Bavarian confreres still live and work in Bolivia today. In addition to pastoral work, they run hospitals, schools, training workshops and soup kitchens together with their Bolivian brothers. They take care of street children, the inclusion of disabled children, fight against malnutrition and provide emergency aid.
Vietnam
The most recent field of activity is Vietnam . In 2006, the Vietnamese Franciscan Chi Thien Vu OFM, who lives in Germany, reported on the plight of the people in his home country. The children in the mountain town of Dong Trang were particularly close to his heart. Since then, an ever growing group of donors has been found with whose help the Franciscan Mission can support the missionary tasks in Vietnam.
today
Today the facility is financed exclusively from donations. In 2017, around 3.3 million euros in donations were received, which were also passed on to projects. The administration of the Franciscan Mission is financed by St. Elisabeth from a fund of the German Franciscan Province. Administrative expenses account for around 6% of the donation volume. The office in Dortmund is headed by Brother Augustinus Diekmann OFM. The office in Munich reports to Brother Alfons Schumacher OFM.
Publications
From the "Antoniusboten", the original mission booklet of the Saxon Franciscan Province, the magazine "Franziskaner Mission" emerged in 1983 - under the leadership of the then mission procurator Reinhard Kellerhoff OFM. This communication organ of the Franciscan Mission, which is still important to this day, appears four times a year, is sent to all donors and supporters free of charge and deals with contemporary mission issues with changing thematic focuses. Since the creation of its own homepage in 2006, the magazine can also be read online. The website is another important means of providing basic and current information about the work of the Franciscan Mission.
Project focus
schools
The association supports numerous projects for schoolchildren from the slums in Brazil, East Africa and Vietnam. These include the Frei Alberto School in São Luís / Brazil, the CONASA school project in Bacabal / Brazil, the Pater Vjeko School in Kivumu / Rwanda and the preschool project in Dong Trang / Vietnam.
awareness raising
The projects to raise awareness show people in need how they can improve their living situation with simple means. Exemplary projects in this context are the family farming schools in Bacabal / Brazil, the CEFRAM educational center in Bacabal / Brazil, the AIDS projects in East Africa and the leprosy projects in Maranhão / Brazil.
Abandonados
" Abandonados " in Brazil are those who have been abandoned, outcasts from society. This includes very different groups of people. The association helps, for example, drug addicts and disabled children in Piripiri / Brazil, women forced into prostitution in Bacabal / Brazil, homeless people in São Paulo / Brazil, street children in São Luís / Brazil and traumatized refugee women in Bukavu / DR Congo.
Emergency aid
If the lives of people are in danger due to war, genocide or natural disasters, the Franciscan Mission helps quickly and unbureaucratically.
Partner group concept
The supporters include not only individual donors, but also a large number of partner groups. These include schools, communities, one-world circles or private initiative groups that support targeted projects with bazaars, concerts, solidarity runs or similar. All groups are regularly visited by the leader of the Franciscan Mission or the missionaries on home leave and kept up to date on current developments in the respective partner project. The aim of the partner group concept is not only to let the money flow, but to create awareness among donors in Germany for the context of life and the mentality of the people in the project locations.
Principles
- No donations are used for the administrative costs. The Franciscan Province has set up a mission fund, from whose interest income the administrative costs of the Franciscan Mission in Dortmund are financed.
- All projects directly supported by the association in Northeast Brazil, East Africa and Vietnam are led by Franciscans. All recipient accounts are owned by the Order. This extensive network of the order ensures comprehensive controls and regular checks as to whether the project funds are used as required.
- A project application will only be processed if the responsible provincial superior of the respective country approves it. Each application must contain an exact breakdown of costs. The applications are examined by the head of the Franciscan Mission and the Provincial Economist or the Provincial of the German Franciscan Province of St. Elisabeth. If the application is accepted, the money will be transferred. Each recipient must confirm receipt of the amount immediately and submit a detailed invoice after the project has been completed. Since there is personal contact with all missionaries that has grown over the years, the cooperation - also in the area of project financing - is uncomplicated and smooth.
- A small portion of the project work is co-financed with other organizations such as the Mission Center of the Franciscans , Adveniat or the DAHW . In these few cases, the issues are co-financed by the Franciscan Mission only when a detailed project review can be verified by the other organization. Here, too, the approval of the respective project is applied according to the principle described above, and here, too, receipt of the money must be confirmed and a project invoice submitted.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Franziskanerkloster Werl (Ed.): Franciscans in Werl - 150 years in service at the pilgrimage site. Werl 1999, p. 126 ff.
- ↑ franziskaner.de