Resumen de La Legislazione dell'O.F.M. dopo l'Unione Leonina: sussulti, progressi, questioni.
The article is in two parts: 1) the formation of the Order's general legislation ofter the Leonine Union; 2) its evolution, about turns, progress and some questions.
From the Leonine Union up to the present the Order has had six sets of General Constitutions (1897, 1913, 1921, 1953, 1970-73, 1987). The path towards union was prepared with the help of a new code of uniform Constitutions for the whole Order, the first since 1517 (!), which was approved by the General Chapter in 1889. The author traces the painful history of the modifications and revisions from the General Chapter of 1903 until the current Constitutions in force since 1987. In the second part, the author examines the development of the legislation in association with events inside the Order and its evolution. A reform such as the Leonine Union was not without its somersaults. Three moments in its history were especially disturbing: the pontificate of Pius X (1905-1914), the years 1945-46 in Italy, and the years after the Council. In conclusion, agter an overview of a century of legislation, the author poses some questions which remain. Some are secondary. He deals with four elements which were eliminated after the Council but which had their own importance: the figure of the Cardinal Protector as contained in the Rule the tertiary brothers, the Apostolic Syndic, and the obligation that General Definitors reside permanently in Rome. Others are more fundamental because they refer to the substantialia of the Rule: vivere sine proprio and the life in the hermitage. The four families which made up the Order at the time of the Leonine Union owed their birth to friars or groups of friars who had tried energetically to live the rule of Francis sine glossa, and who had regenerated the Order. Would that the Order might once again knw within itself the integrated experience of renewing and revitalising groups!.
