(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Spring 2026  Issue #119)

By Jerome Wolbert, OFM • National Spiritual Assistant

My Franciscan vocation began with the Seculars, so when the opportunity came for me to serve as a provincial delegate in 2011, I was happy to volunteer. I was in my second assignment after ordination – middle-aged as a person, but young as a friar. This service has been an incredible opportunity for me to grow and exercise our Franciscan charism. At several points, I have been grateful for those who have walked with me in leadership. My connections grew with their support, leading eventually to the positions I have now as OFS Animator for my province and National Spiritual Assistant.

In recent years, I’ve learned more about legislation – both Church law and the particular law of the Secular Franciscan Order – and the importance of holding to the values encoded in our statutes and canons.

I was impressed by the greater willingness of friars to help Seculars after explaining to several how the Seculars are ineligible to serve their own fraternities as spiritual assistants. But there were also several issues where the values encoded in law have been helpful, most of them more private to those involved. These experiences reinforce for me the first thing we were told in Canon Law courses: Church Law is given to protect the theology of the Church – how we understand God wants to relate to us and for us to relate to each other.

Ecclesiology, for example, is words about how God draws us together as Church and how we function as the Body of Christ. There are many canons and principles of applying those canons – like due cause, giving appropriate notice – which require some accountability and protect both individual persons and groups within the Church, with implications for the Secular Franciscan Order.

At the time of writing this article, the Conference of National Spiritual Assistants is working out how to explain deactivations and dealing with fraternities in difficulty taking into account the new International Statutes. That we would have to revise this part of the Handbook for Spiritual Assistance was a surprise – I hope my fellow friars are not displeased at my revealing this. But for me, this is one of the big lessons I see, somewhat but not entirely in retrospect, as I reflect on 15 years serving your Order in the USA.

The legislation describes the Secular Franciscan Order as autonomous – that is, you write your own legislation and administer your own Order, albeit with oversight or spiritual assistance (CIC 303), as is true of every group in the Church.

It takes time to work out everything that needs to be done and to work it out in words and mentoring that will convey it from one set of leaders and ministers to the next.

This May I move to Rome to prepare for a new assignment working at the Dicastery for Eastern Churches – a very different set of responsibilities than any other service or ministry I’ve held in the past.

My main reflection as I prepare to retire from serving the OFS is the incredible importance of learning our legislation – not just as rules but including the values that are encoded in the statutes, which helps us to apply them properly. Many of you have good instincts, but this is something your generation of leadership will need to develop – and learn how to hand on to future leaders in your National Fraternity.

I have great hope for you, my brothers and sisters, that you will continue to grow in this dimension of service to your Order, and that this growth will help you ever better to address the way that your fraternities bring the Gospel to the lives of those in your local communities. Peace.