CONSTITUTIONS: 13th Plenary session

ROMA - From November 7 to 18, 2011, at our International College, the Commission working on the Constitutions held its 13th and final plenary session. Continuing with stage two of the work on the draft revision, in the light of feedback received from the Order, work was completed on chapters VIII, XI e XII of Constitutions. Now the entire text of the Constitutions and Complementary Code is ready. Only the explanatory footnotes need to be updated, along with the introductions to each chapter of the Constitutions. We hope that this material will be ready, in Italian, by December 31, 2011. The same material will then be distributed to the translators in the other languages. Meanwhile, the translators are already working on translations of the explanatory notes to chapters I-VII and IX-X. Beginning in January 2012, we should be able to start gradually sending out to the Order the Draft of the Constitutions in the different languages. At present, the texts and supporting material are still in need of careful checking.

At its recent plenary meeting the Commission also attended to the other matters within its remit in view of next year’s General Chapter: specifically, how to present the entire project to the Chapter, not only in terms of giving a general report on the work done, but also a presentation of each chapter by the Commission members, who will all be attending the Chapter either as capitulars or as specialists. The Commission has also suggested that the General Chapter set up a capitular commission, to resolve any problems arising with the texts that are submitted for study by the General Chapter.