Thoughts from your Regional Formation Director
January 2018
Greetings to you my sisters and brothers in Christ and Saint Francis of Assisi. I hope that this past Christmas Season was a blessing for you and your families. And I pray that the coming year, 2018, be filled with God’s abundant blessings for you, your families and for your fraternities!
As we discussed last time, those who have gone before us have laid a very good foundation and given us the tools we need to have strong Initial and Ongoing formation programs. We have the FUN Manual, the Regional Formation Handbook, the Franciscan Journey, each other and various sources on the SKD Region web site. We started with a very simple one-page document that gives you an immense amount of direction: the “Pathway to Profession” chart. The chart can be found in the Regional Formation Handbook, second section, page 43, or at the link belowi.
As I said in December, this month’s letter we will be discussing the use of letters of reference. In the SKD Regional Formation Handbook it recommends two letters:
References: Please give us the name and addresses of your pastor or spiritual director and another person who support your desire to enter initial formation in the OFS, and can attest that there are no canonical impediments to your profession in the OFS. Please have them write a letter confirming their support of your decision in a sealed envelope. Letters of reference should be sealed and mailed. Sample to Priest from Fraternity is in Part IV.ii
I recommend the following:
1) A letter from the Pastor (mandatory).
2) A letter from the spiritual director if different than the pastor (optional). This occurs on occasion and both individuals will have different opinions.
3) A letter from a third person “not Clergy or family” who knows them and their Catholic faith expression well (mandatory).
4) And lastly, a letter from the spouse, if he/she is not in the process with them. (Recommended) You need to know that they have the whole-hearted support of the person to whom they are married. We do not want marital discord!
In all cases, you will need to get the proper name, address and title of the persons. Write a letter to them asking them to write a return letter to the fraternity and provide them with a self-addressed stamped envelope. If the individual in initial formation is reluctant to provide this information it should be discussed, but in the end it is mandatory. The person in initial formation should let those individuals know that they will receive a letter from the fraternity’s Formation Director. A good sample of a letter to
a pastor is in the SKD Regional Formation Handbookiii. All the other letters can be adapted from that one. Anyone interested in samples can contact me and I will send PDF files.
Next month we will start discussing how the fraternity council and formation team use the Interview Form, Letters of Reference and Sacramental documents, and how to organize formation files. As mentioned in previous letters, all documents must be saved and properly stored.
Pax et Bonum
Peace and all Good
Ted Bienkowski, OFS
SKD Region Formation Director
i http://www.skdregion.org/wp‐content/uploads/2014/07/pathwaytoprofession.jpg ii SKD Regional Formation Handbook, page 54
iii SKD Regional Formation Handbook, page 151
