Oggi,
dopo breve malattia, è venuto a mancare Padre Giacomo Bini, Ministro
generale dell’Ordine dei Frati Minori dal 1997 al 2003 e figura
carismatica del movimento francescano internazionale.
Pubblichiamo, di seguito, il comunicato odierno dell'Ordine dei Frati Minori:
"Questa mattina è giunta la triste notizia della morte di fr. Giacomo
Bini, già Ministro generale dell’Ordine (1997-2003). Fr. Giacomo aveva
75 anni ed era nato ad Ostra Vetere, in
provincia di Ancona, il 23 agosto 1938 da Amalio e Teresa Tanfani. Il 18
settembre 1956 è entrato nell’Ordine, nella Provincia Picena di san
Giacomo della Marca, dove ha emesso la Prima Professione il 19 settembre
1957 e la Professione Solenne il 7 settembre 1963. È stato ordinato
sacerdote il 14 marzo 1964. Nella Provincia marchigiana ha ricoperto gli
incarichi di Maestro dei Novizi, Definitore e Vicario provinciale.
Nel febbraio del 1983 è partito per la missione ad gentes e si è
incardinato nella Vice-Provincia di San Francesco in Africa e
Madagascar, dove gli sono stati affidati i servizi di Definitore e
Vicario provinciale. Nel sessennio immediatamente precedente alla sua
elezione a Ministro generale, è stato Ministro provinciale a Nairobi, in
Kenya.
Ha studiato per due anni all’Institut Catholique di Parigi e, nel
1971 presso l’Università di Strasburgo, ha ottenuto il Dottorato in
Scienze Religiose, con la tesi: “Peccato e penitenza in san Basilio di
Cesarea”. È stato Ministro generale dal 1997 al 2003.
Nel 2007 è stato nominato Guardiano della Fraternità Internazionale
di Palestrina, dipendente dal Ministro generale, sorta come
concretizzazione del Seminario del 2006 sulle “Nuove Forme di
Evangelizzazione in Europa”. Attualmente era Presidente della Fondazione
“Beato Egidio”, che comprende, oltre a Palestrina, anche Istanbul.
Il Signore delle misericordie lo accolga nel suo abbraccio di luce e di pace".
fonte: www.ofm.org
Giacomo Bini (23 August 1938 – 9 May 2014) was a priest of the Franciscan order. Ordained in 1964, he worked as a missionary in Africa, and was appointed General Minister of the Order of the Friars Minor (OFM) for the period 1997–2003. He was fluent in Italian, French, English, Spanish and Kiswahili.
The new community kept close communion with the Poor Clares, who had established a mission in Kamonyi in 1982, and some years later (1986) with a Belgian order, the Franciscan Sisters of the Kingdom of Jesus, who were based in Zaire. Bini superintended vocational training for several years, both in Rwanda and Tanzania. Among 100 young Rwandans desiring to entering the novitiate, just 5 were selected for postulancy the first group on the 29 September 1985.From 1993 to 1997 he served as Provincial Minister of the Vice Province of St. Francis of Africa and Madagascar in Nairobi. Shortly after his appointment, in 1994 a wave of genocidal violence against the Tutsi ethnic minority broke out. Br. Georges Gashugi, a Rwandan friar on the eve of his consecration, was hauled from a truck in late April 1994, identified as a Tutsi and slaughtered: his last wish, to be allowed to die in his Franciscan tunic, was denied. One of the earliest missionaries, from Croatia, Vjeko Curic, who had gone on to master the Kinyarwanda language of Rwanda, proved instrumental in both saving many Tutsi from falling victims of the genocide and in helping Hutus who had been later targeted for revenge when the first wave of violence passed, was shot dead, reportedly by a hired gunman whom he had formerly helped, in Kigali on the 31 January 1998.His funeral was attended by thousands of Africans, and members of both the Islamic and Jewish communities. In his address on the occasion as Minister General of the order, Bini recalled that Vjeko has predicted months earlier that, 'those whom I saved will kill me,' and cited the words from the Gospel of St John(10, 17b-18a):
As head of the Franciscan Order, which is the official Catholic 'custos of the Holy Land', he was present at Mount Nebo to greet Pope John Paul II at his starting point for his pilgrimage to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Subsequently, on the occasion of the General Chapter Meeting of 2003, the Pope addressed Bini and his order in an extended letter covering their functions and mission.
Bini was also active in advocating the development of a renewed relationship, based on 'theocentric complementarity', between the Franciscan order and the Sisters of St Claire. Both orders, he argued, from their common roots are "ecstatic", in a nomadic pursuit of a humble, theocentric lifestyle based on "expropriation", by which he means a mode of humble existence "“sine proprio” (void of all personal attachments). The ascetic discipline conjoins self-impoverishment with an itinerary of seeking a flourishing matrix of relationships with others in a charismatic fraternity. This was the original legacy bequeathed by St. Francis and St. Claire, one that the world easily depauperates, but which, in his vision, the orders have jealously guarded for eight centuries. He admits however, that his own order has, in the past, neglected this foundational tradition of formative dialogue with its sister order. An 'intrusive “masculism” or exaggerated feminism may have facilitated this separation' in the past, and Bini argues for the urgency of renovating the relationship between a feminine order that undertook a vow of obedience to St. Francis, and the Franciscan order which assumed the responsibility to care for the sisters of the poor. Both orders began by a reciprocal trust which, while subordinating itself to the primary loyalty of the Church, "instilled in her a seed of gospel folly”, an evangelical folly which has played an important role on several occasions in refreshing the vigour of the wider Catholic order. In a return to their complementarity, Bini sees an important resource for the evangelical renewal of the Church itself.
He died, after a brief illness, on 9 May 2014.
Lunedì 12 maggio presso la chiesa delle Suore Francescane Missionarie di Maria di Grottaferrata (Roma) si sono svolti i funerali di Frate Giacomo Bini, di cui abbiamo parlato nel post di venerdì 9 maggio u.s.
Giacomo Bini (23 August 1938 – 9 May 2014) was a priest of the Franciscan order. Ordained in 1964, he worked as a missionary in Africa, and was appointed General Minister of the Order of the Friars Minor (OFM) for the period 1997–2003. He was fluent in Italian, French, English, Spanish and Kiswahili.
Early life
Bini was born in Ostra Vetere, Ancona in 1938. He entered a seminary at an early age, where he received his secondary education, and entered the Franciscan order on 18 September 1956, at the age of 18. He made his Solemn Profession on 7 September 1963, and was consecrated to the priesthood on 14 March 1964. He subsequently pursued further studies in both Paris, where he attended the Institut Catholique for two years, and at Strasbourg, where he obtained the title of Doctor in Religious Sciences at the University of Strasbourg in 1971. His thesis was entitled Sin and Penance in St. Basil of Caesarea.[2] His early roles ranged from Definitor, instructor in liturgy at the regional seminary of Fano, master of studies for prospective friars undergoing their novitiate, provincial vicar of the Marche region, and both guardian and parish priest at Urbino.
Rwanda mission
In 1982, after expressing a wish to participate in the Africa project of his order, he was incardinated the Vice Province of St. Francis of Africa and Madagascar to establish the Rwanda Order of Friars Minor. Bini's functions were those of Definitor and Vicar Provincial.The project envisaged three principles:- Living as a Franciscan fraternity dedicated to listening and service for reciprocal conversion;
- To embody the charismatic ideal of Franciscan poverty and service to the poor, while maintaining close communion with the local Church.
- To live in a small parish in a poor area.
The new community kept close communion with the Poor Clares, who had established a mission in Kamonyi in 1982, and some years later (1986) with a Belgian order, the Franciscan Sisters of the Kingdom of Jesus, who were based in Zaire. Bini superintended vocational training for several years, both in Rwanda and Tanzania. Among 100 young Rwandans desiring to entering the novitiate, just 5 were selected for postulancy the first group on the 29 September 1985.From 1993 to 1997 he served as Provincial Minister of the Vice Province of St. Francis of Africa and Madagascar in Nairobi. Shortly after his appointment, in 1994 a wave of genocidal violence against the Tutsi ethnic minority broke out. Br. Georges Gashugi, a Rwandan friar on the eve of his consecration, was hauled from a truck in late April 1994, identified as a Tutsi and slaughtered: his last wish, to be allowed to die in his Franciscan tunic, was denied. One of the earliest missionaries, from Croatia, Vjeko Curic, who had gone on to master the Kinyarwanda language of Rwanda, proved instrumental in both saving many Tutsi from falling victims of the genocide and in helping Hutus who had been later targeted for revenge when the first wave of violence passed, was shot dead, reportedly by a hired gunman whom he had formerly helped, in Kigali on the 31 January 1998.His funeral was attended by thousands of Africans, and members of both the Islamic and Jewish communities. In his address on the occasion as Minister General of the order, Bini recalled that Vjeko has predicted months earlier that, 'those whom I saved will kill me,' and cited the words from the Gospel of St John(10, 17b-18a):
'No one takes [my life] from me; I lay it down of my own free will".
Minister General
On 14 May 1997, at the General Chapter meeting at St. Mary of the Angels near Assisi Bini was elected the successor of St Francis and leader of the worldwide Order of Franciscan Friars, a role he covered for a period of six years, until 2003. During his superintendence, as part of a renewal of old links between the Tuscan chapter of the Franciscans and the people of Lithuania, a Franciscan hermitage was established in July 2000 on the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, and for the occasion Pope John Paul II wrote a letter of appreciation to Bini and his confrères.As head of the Franciscan Order, which is the official Catholic 'custos of the Holy Land', he was present at Mount Nebo to greet Pope John Paul II at his starting point for his pilgrimage to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Subsequently, on the occasion of the General Chapter Meeting of 2003, the Pope addressed Bini and his order in an extended letter covering their functions and mission.
2003-2014
In 2007, Bini established a European Missionary Fraternity in Palestrina, closely bound to a similar entity in Istanbul, in the wake of discussions conducted at a General Curia seminar the preceding year dedicated to evangelization in Europe. The aim was to develop the definitional “contemplative Fraternity in mission” of the order in two directions: one consisted in striving to create a community of that would 'live the Rule', engaging in contemplative prayer, physical labour and missionary adventure which, at the same time, would aggregate postulants from around the world; the other was premised on the idea of establishing a presence within its chosen area, to serve as a basis for inter-faith dialogue and eucumenical life. Freedom in simplicity, - a refusal of television, cars, and hired help within the monastic domain - trust in providence and a valorization of individual and cultural diversity were to be important elements of the new community. In itinerant missionary work, one must go forth penniless, in conformity with the original Gospel principles laid down by Christ, and confide one's trust in the provision and benefactions of chance. The missionary activity has since extended its reach throughout Europe, from Spain and France, to Poland and Lithuania, and has reached out to gypsy communities.Bini was also active in advocating the development of a renewed relationship, based on 'theocentric complementarity', between the Franciscan order and the Sisters of St Claire. Both orders, he argued, from their common roots are "ecstatic", in a nomadic pursuit of a humble, theocentric lifestyle based on "expropriation", by which he means a mode of humble existence "“sine proprio” (void of all personal attachments). The ascetic discipline conjoins self-impoverishment with an itinerary of seeking a flourishing matrix of relationships with others in a charismatic fraternity. This was the original legacy bequeathed by St. Francis and St. Claire, one that the world easily depauperates, but which, in his vision, the orders have jealously guarded for eight centuries. He admits however, that his own order has, in the past, neglected this foundational tradition of formative dialogue with its sister order. An 'intrusive “masculism” or exaggerated feminism may have facilitated this separation' in the past, and Bini argues for the urgency of renovating the relationship between a feminine order that undertook a vow of obedience to St. Francis, and the Franciscan order which assumed the responsibility to care for the sisters of the poor. Both orders began by a reciprocal trust which, while subordinating itself to the primary loyalty of the Church, "instilled in her a seed of gospel folly”, an evangelical folly which has played an important role on several occasions in refreshing the vigour of the wider Catholic order. In a return to their complementarity, Bini sees an important resource for the evangelical renewal of the Church itself.
He died, after a brief illness, on 9 May 2014.
Lunedì 12 maggio presso la chiesa delle Suore Francescane Missionarie di Maria di Grottaferrata (Roma) si sono svolti i funerali di Frate Giacomo Bini, di cui abbiamo parlato nel post di venerdì 9 maggio u.s.
Pubblichiamo, di seguito, il messaggio di commiato dell'Arcivescovo José Rodríguez Carballo, Segretario della Congregazione per gli Istituti di Vita Consacrata, già Ministro Generale dell'Ordine dei Frati Minori.
Con profonda tristezza e dolore ho avuto, questa mattina stessa, la dolorosa notizia della morte e transito del nostro caro Fratello Giacomo Bini, ofm, degno figlio del Serafico Padre san Francesco e suo successore nella storia del nostro amatissimo Ordine, come Ministro generale (1997-2003).
Voglio unirmi a voi in questi momenti di lacerazione interiore e accompagnarvi con la mia preghiera fraterna e le mie suppliche, come anche essere in comunione con voi nella speranza della Vita che non conosce tramonto.
Voglio unirmi a voi per elevare al Padre delle Misericordie un canto di azione di grazie per la vita e il lavoro di questo nostro fratello. Voglio stare vicino a voi ed esprimervi le mie più sentite condoglianze per questa perdita così importante per il nostro caro Ordine.
Con la morte del padre Giacomo non solo la nostra Fraternità ha perso un uomo buono, ma tutto l’Ordine ha perso un uomo carismatico, profeta e testimone di vita evangelica e francescana, che ha saputo sapientemente unire senso e conoscimento, animazione e governo,servizio e consiglio.
Fr. Giacomo è stato per me un maestro, un fratello e un amico.
Maestro,in quanto mi ha insegnato, con la lezione magistrale della sua vita, a vivere ed animare gli altri a seguire più da vicino il Signore Gesù, povero e crocifisso; maestro e profeta che ha aperto orizzonti di missione e di annuncio del Vangelo.
Fratello, poiché abbiamo camminato insieme nel governo generale, lui come Ministro ed io, in quel momento, come Definitore; e, in seguito, quando svolgevo l’ufficio di Ministro, sempre disponibile per qualunque cosa lo consultassi, sempre vicino con i suoi consigli, sempre disposto a dare una mano perché l’Ordine camminasse con sempre maggiore fedeltà a quanto tutti abbiamo professato.
Amico, perché il suo affetto di grande importanza e significato nasceva dal medesimo interesse comune: il Vangelo e la nostra forma di vita.
Amico, perché il suo affetto di grande importanza e significato nasceva dal medesimo interesse comune: il Vangelo e la nostra forma di vita.
La sera prima della sua partenza per la casa del Padre ci siamo incontrati per l’ultima volta, qui sulla terra.
L’ho trovato sereno, consapevole del suo transito, pacificato interiormente:“So che mi aspetta il Signore in paradiso; vado fiducioso”,sono state le sue parole.
E la sua sollecitudine, che ora vi trasmetto, era che vivessimo con fedeltà la forma di vita professata, mentre allo stesso tempo si preoccupava per la Fondazione del Beato Egidio.
Ho incontrato l’amico, il fratello e il maestro, che mi ha insegnato, ancora una volta, il valore della vita, l’essenziale di essa, la bellezza della nostra professione religiosa. Gli ho chiesto di benedirmi e poi gli ho dato anch’io la mia benedizione.
È morto un amico, un fratello, un maestro... un santo appassionato per il Vangelo della missione e per l’Ordine di Frati Minori.
Passione che si captava subito nel suo modo di parlare, ma soprattutto si toccava nel condividere la vita ordinaria con lui. Un Frate Minore, non solo di professione, ma di vita.
Questa visita di Sorella Morte corporale ci aiuti a vivere “il senza nulla di proprio” professato da noi religiosi francescani, e soprattutto a scoprire la figura dell’Altissimo che ci invita a cantare “Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sora nostra morte corporale...”.
Con la nostra fraterna preghiera e sincera gratitudine accompagniamo oggi il carissimo padre Giacomo all’incontro con il Signore, invocando per lui il premio promesso ai servi fedeli del Vangelo.
I nostri cari Santi che dimorano in Cielo, e specialmente il nostro beato padre san Francesco, lo presentino al Signore.
La Vergine fatta Chiesa possa condurlo al banchetto preparato per lui dall’eternità.
A te, mio Ministro, a tutti i Fratelli dell’Ordine, alla Provincia Francescanadelle Marche da cui il nostro caro Fratello proveniva,alla sua Fraternità diPalestrina, alla Fondazione Beato Egidio, e a tutta la sua famiglia la miavicinanza e la mia confortatrice benedizione.
Caro Giacomo, maestro, amico e fratello santo: ci vedremo in cielo!
Nel Signore, fiat, fiat,amen, amen.
fonte: www.ofm.org
fonte: www.ofm.org
