Dear Brothers,

in the midst of this time of Easter, with the joy of the Risen Jesus, and without leaving aside concern for those suffering in so many parts of our world, near and far from us, perhaps right beside us – immigrants, persecuted Christians, those displaced by wars, people treated like animals, child soldiers – people like ourselves living in a different country, or in a social, family or work environment with their Human Rights reduced to pure theory, for reasons we are all aware of, the message of Easter puts us in our place and opens our eyes. That young man dressed in white who in the tomb prepared for Jesus tells the women that Jesus is risen, not to come and embalm him but to go and proclaim that he is alive, that young man is each one of us, and it is our responsibility to tell by our lives as brothers that Jesus is alive, and no stone – greed, envy, hatred, fundamentalism – can hide it and that it is not necessary to continue embalming him with religious formulae that have nothing to do with the Gospel, reduced to an image that is worshipped but not loved. Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, our Brother, God on Earth, strengthens us today with his light and sends us out to be priests, servants of the people, of the least of people, especially of the poor, not as religious professionals – Lords of the temple or masters of a religious court – (resort, condo, golf club – in each country it will have a different style –), who take refuge in ceremonies – and remain comfortable in their power structures and forms. Francis our Pope begins his Bull Misericordia Vultus saying that Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy, and further on, that we are called to live mercy because we first of all have been given mercy. This Holy Year announced by Francis is great news this Easter and calls us to be merciful. However, how difficult and complicated it is to be merciful to those who do not practise it, and that is where we face a challenge in our lives.

It would be good to begin the Holy Year of Mercy in our fraternities doing a Review of Life suggested by each country’s situation and by the overall context of our world. Later we will be able to offer some ideas.

In Easter week we took part in the Assembly of the Charles de FOUCAULD Family in Castelfranco, Italy, with the delegates and responsibles of the Fraternities working in a fraternal atmosphere which the Disciples of the Gospel afforded us at their central fraternity, making us feel very much at home, accompanied in a simple manner by these young Sisters who are a pure joy. Thanks to them and to the team made up of Marianne, Anne Marie, Antonella and Josep, we worked on the theme ‘Charles de FOUCAULD, Man of Prayer, Worker, the Challenges for our Fraternities’, sharing our experiences. We shared the responses to the Preparatory Questionnaire. You can see the summary of our Priestly Fraternity response on the web-site www.iesuscaritas.org It is important to highlight all we did about the Centenary of Brother Charles, gathering the initiatives of the different Fraternities and countries. It is very clear that we want to celebrate the Centennial with the simplicity of people of the Gospel and in the style of Nazareth, without any triumphalism.

Our next meeting will be in Aachen, Germany in Easter Week 2017. The new Preparatory Group is made up of Marianne, (Secretary), Armelle (Little Sister of the Gospel), Antonella (Disciple of the Gospel) and Claudio (Lay Fraternity).

It was a great joy for me to meet up in Castelfranco once more with Secondo MARTIN, the Italian Responsible, in the open session, and with Giannantonio ALLEGRI, whom I met for the first time. His testimony and peace extravaganza helped me also to feel freed from abductions, attachments and dependencies, and called to forgive again and again those who might harm me. This brother gifts us with his Nazareth of life, heart and open hands to show the mercy of God in situations difficult to imagine. His abductors and his liberation live together in his heart.

Other good news this Easter is the proximate beatification of Óscar Arnulfo ROMERO –Saint Romero of America –. His blood shed for the name of Jesus is another call to the universal Church to cherish the generous dedication of men and women who, like Archbishop ROMERO, have given all for their people. This pastor teaches us to be pastors like Jesus, without fleeing from the danger associated with commitment to the poorest. He did not fear the danger and, like Jesus, he sided with others without regard for the consequences. Congratulations especially to our Latin-American fraternities.

Our Brother Charles gives us, witnessing these weeks to changes in the world, to unresolved conflicts, and to new forms of slavery, the possibility from Nazareth to better understand those whose lives become problematic when they lose everything, due to accident, attack, natural catastrophe, war, extreme poverty or illness. How can we understand these suffering people? How do we understand God? Is it a head or a heart problem? How did Brother Charles fit together all he experienced, and how, Gospel in hand, are we called to share and help? For many life has lost its meaning; hope and mercy are the bread we must break daily and this is an exercise of conversion of our hearts, of faith and a contemplative space that puts us on the Cross of Jesus and in the tomb too, to announce fearlessly and joyfully that he is alive, with the stone rolled aside and the door wide open. Sharing pain and joy is a sign of incarnation.

In July we will celebrate the Asian Month of Nazareth in Myanmar, and in November in Marsanne, France. Also in July the Viviers meeting for priests in relation to Islam. These events are mentioned on our web-site www.iesuscaritas.org and we on the International Team urge you to take part, or to pray for the brothers, putting these meetings of the Fraternity in the Lord’s hands, as an act of universal brotherhood. We must not stay only in our little fraternity groups of our local or national Fraternities: there are many other brothers of other languages or races who live the charism of Charles de FOUCAULD as diocesan priests. When we share all this, not like a brand label, or like a spiritual group, we are living universal brotherhood and we draw closer to the model of Jesus, to that of a Samaritan Church, which gets down from its high horse and attends to whoever is in need, without turning back or looking away.

To conclude, thanks for letting me know of any Fraternities events (retreats, Months of Nazareth, meetings…) to announce on the CALENDAR of the web-site. Many thanks to one and all.

With Easter joy, which spreads like the water we sprinkle on brothers and sisters in celebrations in our churches, my sincere and fraternal embrace proclaiming the resurrected Jesus.

Aurelio SANZ BAEZA, brother responsible

Perín, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain, 23 April 2015
(Thank you, Liam, for the translation to English)

PDF: letter-easter-2015-brother-responsible

Dear Brothers,

from the 21st to the 27th of March we met in Perín, at Aurelio’s home, to reflect and work on the life of the fraternities. By means of this letter we wish to be united with you, our brothers spread throughout the world, in Africa, in North and South America, Central America and the Caribbean in Asia, Australasia and Europe.

We believe that an important fact in the life of the Christian communities, that we accompany as priests today, is the teaching of Pope Francis, and the perspectives for the renewal of the life of the Church which he has set out in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

We are delighted with the convergence between the main themes developed by Pope Francis and some fundamental aspects of the spiritual message of Brother Charles:

• The joy that comes from our meeting Jesus
• The urge to mission, which involves friendship and familiarity with the people entrusted to us (with reference to “the smell of the sheep”).
• The desire for a Church capable of “going out to the periphery”
• The proposal of “a Church with and for the poor”.
• The importance of mercy for all those hurt by life…

Thanks to all our brothers who highlight this convergence in their writings and utterances on the occasion of meetings and retreats. This helps us progress and reiterates the validity our priestly fraternity has at the heart of the life and mission of the Church.

During our week joined in friendship and sharing together in prayer, we addressed various themes which are related, in one way or another, to the “universal brotherhood” desired by Brother Charles:

1) The recognition of the Priestly Fraternity Iesus Caritas by the Congregation for Clergy. This is not just some formal procedure in order to ‘comply’ with them. It is a case, above all, of investing our priestly ministry with the special character that marks the spirituality of brother Charles (the spirituality of Nazareth, the missionary dimension characterised by an apostleship of goodness, the preferential option for the poor, and our willingness to share responsibility with laity…) within the dynamic of the universal Church.

Following a short meeting Aurelio, accompanied by Secondo Martin (Italy) and Honoré (Burkina Faso), had with Cardinal STELLA, the new Prefect of the Congregatio pro Clericis, in Rome, last December we proceeded to send on all the documentation requested with our request. We await recognition.

2) We also worked on the project for the intercontinental meeting of the Americas (North, Central and South with the Caribbean) in Mexico in February 2016.

Our thanks to the fraternities of Mexico who will host this important meeting and provide food and accommodation.

Thanks also to Mauricio da SILVA JARDIM from Porto Alegre and to Mark MERTES from Kansas City for their active involvement in the preparation.

3) In the context of a situation marked by the tensions between part of the Muslim world and the West, we see the importance of the Viviers meeting next June 13 – 19, on the theme “Diocesan Priests, at the service of the meeting of Christians and Muslims in the light of the message of Charles de FOUCAULD”.

This meeting will help us have a better understanding of priestly ministry in its responsibility to promote and develop within Christian communities a movement of encounter and dialogue with Muslims.

Priests of the European fraternities will meet with priests who minister in the Maghreb or in the Sahel. This exchange of experiences could be valuable in helping us to adapt to one another in our concern to serve “universal brotherhood”.

(See the invitation to the meeting on the international Fraternity website: www.iesuscaritas.org)

4) Universal brotherhood includes economic solidarity between all fraternities.

In order to organise the Month of Nazareth or meetings, and the travel involved, the international fund needs regular support.

For this reason we believe that each country should dedicate 10% of its subscription to the international fund.

Mark MERTES, the economic responsible of the International Team, will be in contact with each national treasurer to achieve this aim.

5) Thanks to all who replied to the questionnaire proposed on the occasion of the Meeting of the Spiritual Family of Charles de FOUCAULD which will take place in Castelfranco, Italy, in Easter Week. Aurelio will take part and will fill us in on all the preparations for the celebration of the centenary of the death of Blessed Charles de FOUCAULD.

6) The next meeting of the International Team will be in Perín, Spain, from October 20 to 29, 2015.

It will be a time for us to listen together to all that is happening in fraternities around the world.

It will also be an opportunity for the team to discern what the Lord is asking of us so that, together, in fraternities spread across the whole world, we may all serve the unity of the human family, as called for by the Second Vatican Council and present Brother Charles as “Universal Brother”.

We do not forget that in these meetings of the International Team it is the spirit of Nazareth which guides us and calls us to live it out in our meeting the people and the Christian communities that welcome us.

In this spirit, during the course of our week, we met the Bishop of Cartagena, José Manuel LORCA, Little Sisters of Jesus, brother priests of the Murcia fraternity, as well as all those living in the Torre Nazaret community, those who host them and neighbours of the parish.

We wish you well on your journey towards Easter and offer a heartfelt embrace.

Jean François and Aurelio

Perín, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain, 27 March, 2015

PDF: Letter Jean François and Aurelio,Perín, 27march2015, english

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

what a great joy it is to be with you and to take part in the retreat in Casa Bethânia of San Juan Bautista, Santa Caterina (SC). Thanks to all, and especially to Gildo and the preparatory team. Thanks to Mauricio, my brother on the International Team. For the silent work of Almir, Edimar, Nicanor and other brothers, who received us and looked after us with simplicity both in the Florianópolis seminary and in Casa Bethânia: looking after all the little details with their help and availability, many thanks.

As a European, our Bishops Edson and Eugênio have impressed me, with their fraternity style, truly “smelling of the sheep” and of the street. Eugênio has done us a great favour with his meditations, which have helped us to deepen our living the spirituality of Charles de FOUCAULD, and the shared celebrations of the Eucharist with people from Casa Bethânia, a family without blood ties, but united in faith in Jesus Saviour, and with the resonance of the message of welcome and love of their founder, Father Léo: it is a true miracle to restore to people their dignity and heart.

I believe that the diversity of participants is very good, not just priests of the Fraternity, but also the participation of lay members and supporters of the Fraternity and of the two deacons… This has lent a fine ecclesial and fraternal style to the twelve fraternities taking part in the retreat sharing in the Review of Life and the experiences of the Day in the Desert. Personally it has really helped me to get to know your Fraternity open to human realities, and not just centred on itself.

Pope Francis has been another participant in our retreat. It is as if he has travelled along the path with us. We have appreciated his message, full of the Gospel, his prophecy and his love of the poor: a Church where we feel at home once more, and called to announce Jesus with the joy of the first Christians, in a complex world full of false gods, sometimes in the guise of institutions, individuals, systems, claims… attractions of power, of wealth, of pleasures. Francis has been a breath of fresh air for us and has spurred us on to give of what we have within us, as earthen vessels. His being in tune with the inspirations of brother Charles delights us, with his universal message which brings so much to the Church and also to the lives of the most abandoned.

I felt the joy in the celebrations, with the singing and raised hands, and the silence in the adoration. Thanks for allowing me share life celebrating what we are as wood from the same tree, with branches that afford shade, welcome birds, shelter from the rain, the tree of the cross which is the tree of life.

Eugênio encouraged us to arrange a monthly Day in the Desert in our diaries, as a priority, giving time to the Lord, in order to listen to him, not to burden him with our petitions and prayers, stripped of everything, being just as we are, without pretense… without books, pen or paper… a gift from God. It might seem a waste of time, and, nevertheless, it is time the Lord has for us, gratuitously, in his hands, as we say in the Prayer of Abandonment.

In February 2016, the centenary of Brother Charles, we will hold the first assembly of the Fraternity in the Americas in Mexico. There are eight countries in which the Priestly Fraternity is present… with North, central and South Americans: it is a challenge for our universality as Christians and as brothers; a call to us not to engage in naval gazing but to share the reality of a Church with different characteristics, yet one in the heart of Jesus.

I invite you to make frequent us of our Internet page www.iesuscaritas.org and to share what is happening, communications and forthcoming events of the Brazilian fraternities. We have this means to get to know each other better and to bring us close to our brothers across the whole world.

Thanks for being brothers, for living brotherhood in your lives, and not just in theory. You have done me a power of good!

I bring a sincere embrace from you all to Spain, and from here send you another big and firm embrace.

United in prayer and in the dream of brother Charles, your little brother

Aurelio SANZ BAEZA, brother responsible
Perín, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain, 18 January 2015