RBWords - Volume 23 - Number 9: September 2010
Something to Think About
This has been an important month for Dominican friars. Our highest community authority, the General Chapter, met in Rome and elected a new leader, whom we call the Master of the Order. He is Fr. Bruno Cadore’, O.P., from France. He is in his late 50’s and was a medical doctor before entering the Dominican order. Since I entered the order in the mid-sixties, I have met every one of the Masters (a title referring to the medieval equivalent of a full professor at a university)serving in office in my time. They have included a Spaniard (Aniceto Fernandez), a Frenchman (Vincent de Couesnongle), an Irishman (Damian Byrne), an Englishman (Timothy Radcliffe), an Argentinian (Carlos Aspiroz Costa) and I have every hope of meeting Fr. Bruno! (Dominican friars with a penchant for detail will note that I did not mention Albert Nolan of South Africa who was elected but immediately persuaded the Chapter to accept his resignation because of the situation in South Africa at the time. I have not met him, unfortunately!) The Master is elected to a nine year term of office. We traditionally do not re-elect them.
Our order is one of the world’s oldest democracies! (The order was founded in 1216!) We elect local, regional and international leaders and they are subject to a council and “chapter” in their decision-making. Our process of decision-making is somewhat messy since each brother has a “voice” and many are not shy about using it! Leaders are elected for fixed terms and may be (but are not always) elected to a second term before stepping down and becoming an ordinary member. Our regional and international “chapters” (legislative/electoral assemblies) are composed of elected delegates. All of this is described and regulated by a set of “constitutions.” When we Dominican friars make our vows to the Order, we place our hands in the hands of the superior receiving the vows, but both sets of hands rest on a copy of the constitutions! These constitutions describe how our four “pillars” of life operate: prayer, study, community and ministry, and all of it is directed toward our common charism: PREACHING! Our official title is the Order of Preachers (O.P.). It will be Fr. Bruno’s job to travel around the world to visit wherever Dominican friars are living and to encourage us to be faithful to our charism and our constitutions. I hope the job doesn’t wear him completely out! IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID: “As the Rule [of St. Augustine] tells us, the main reason why we are gathered together in community is so that we might live in harmony in the house, of one mind and heart in God. This unity achieves its full dimension beyond the convent, in the province and the entire Order. The unanimity of our life has its roots in the love of God and it ought to be a living example of universal reconciliation in Christ which we proclaim by our preaching.”
From THE BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS AND ORDINATIONS OF THE BROTHERS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, Article one, #2.