(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Summer 2025  Issue #116)

by Jerome Wolbert, OFM

National Spiritual Assistant

How would you describe spiritual assistance to someone who is not a Secular Franciscan? I have to answer this even for a lot of the friars that I try to recruit to serve. To help someone understand quickly, we have to be nearly complete, very concise, and entirely correct. Think of a priest you know who has never served as a spiritual assistant – what would you say to try to recruit him?

What

You might start with the things you see a spiritual assistant do – attend meetings of the fraternity, its council, and initial formation sessions; serve on the council but not voting in elections or financial issues; provide spiritual input and oversee formation and the spiritual/liturgical life of the fraternity. But the most important role is to “guarantee” the Franciscan charism of the fraternity, which speaks to how we serve as much as what we do.

How

Spiritual assistants are not supposed to be directive, although sometimes they must direct. They should support the fraternity, but they also have to challenge its members. Spiritual and pastoral assistance has to be kind, but there are times when the lost sheep has to be found, and there are times they don’t want to be told they are wandering away, especially when they drag or push others.

Listening is an important part of spiritual and pastoral assistance. Therefore, the assistant listens and helps others to listen – and to voice their messages in a way that they are more likely to be heard.

Who

Part of the role of the spiritual assistant is the relationship. We think immediately of someone to make sure the fraternity is connected with the friars, but this relationship is more than facilitating a connection. Canon Law (CIC 303) requires the friars to provide an altius moderamen for each fraternity, a “higher moderation” or outside perspective.

Have you ever been part of a group that got waylaid by one charismatic member? I know this never happens in our fraternities (smile), but maybe in a different type of group. The Church insists that every association of the faithful needs this outside moderation, someone to come in from outside to provide a check to “guarantee the Franciscan charism.” Just as a referee can’t be part of a team on the field, the assistant is someone outside the fraternity who walks with the fraternity. The shepherd is not a sheep but walks with them. This is part of our answer to “who” can be a spiritual assistant.

Accountability

The “outside” part of this requirement shows that this is a kind of accountability – checks and balances. Where only one group is “ruling,” there is less chance to catch mistakes or make sure that different voices are heard. We not only see this in government, but in the Church, as well. We have checks and balances – or outside moderation.

Relationships

In March, the CNSA set forth instructions for the implementation of one of the international statutes that has implications for around three dozen local fraternities and half of our regional fraternities: A Secular Franciscan cannot be appointed Spiritual Assistant to his/her own Fraternity at any level (IS 78.2).

While some people have argued this disrespects the service of many OFS members, I hope you see in this article that the question of “who” and the relationships we have are important and should not be set aside just because we lack a friar. In fact, IS 78.1 sets in law that it is permissible for an OFS member to serve as a spiritual assistant – something which the General Spiritual Assistants were hesitant to allow ten years ago.