Sisters from all over the world will gather from September 8 – 22, 2024
August 28, 2024. The 21st International General Chapter of the Hospital Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St Francis will take place in Muenster from September 8-22, 2024. Founded in Telgte in 1844, the Congregation with locations in Germany, Poland, America, Japan and India, will meet at the Episcopal Seminary Borromaeum on Cathedral Square in Muenster, Germany, to elect a new international General Leadership and discuss a wide range of topics relating to the faith, life and work of all Sisters worldwide. The election of the new Superior General for a term of office of six years will take place on September 14, 2024 under the chairmanship of Bishop Dr. Felix Genn, as will her subsequent inauguration in the German Motherhouse church. The international General Councilors of the congregation will also be newly elected. Recently, the 524 Sisters of the congregation around the world have appointed 33 delegates who will travel to the General Chapter in Münster.
The solemn opening of the General Chapter will take place on Sunday, September 8, 2024, at 10 a.m. during a Eucharistic celebration with Cathedral Provost Hans-Bernd Köppen in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Münster, with the Spiritual Director of the congregation, Professor Father Dr. Dr. Michael Plattig, as concelebrant. This Holy Mass will be streamed on the website of the Diocese of Münster, www.bistum-muenster.de, as well as on the diocese’s YouTube and Facebook channels. The proceedings of the General Chapter will be continuously reported on the website of the Generalate, www.generalat-hsosf.de, from the beginning of September.
The General Chapter is the highest decision-making assembly of the congregation and is divided into a Chapter of Election for the appointment of a new leadership and a Chapter of Affairs covering a wide range of topics, from the spirituality of the international community to the various ministries of the sisters and the facts of life at the worldwide locations. “The perspective work will have a high priority at this General Chapter,” explains the outgoing Superior General, Sister M. Margarete Ulager, who will officially leave office together with her councilors on September 10. “In the context of the tense situation in Church, society and current politics worldwide, we are faced with the great task of planning and shaping the future of our international Congregation – trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” The motto of the General Chapter is: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
In order to help shape this perspective work and promote global networking, for the first time in the history of the Congregation, Juniorate Sisters from Poland, Japan and India have been invited to the upcoming 21st General Chapter alongside the elective Sisters. Also for the first time, civilian employees from the international locations will be present as guests. This internationality is also reflected in the diversity of languages: English is the common conference language, but all official documents will be created in German, Polish, English and Japanese, and the entire event will be accompanied by six simultaneous translators.
As her term of office draws to a close, Sister M. Margarete expresses her heartfelt thanks to the sisters of her General Council, all her fellow sisters worldwide and the civilian staff and partners at the international locations of the congregation for their good cooperation and support. “It was a term of office with some special aspects,” says the Superior General. A member of the German Province of the Congregation, she was elected in the USA in 2018 – at the first General Chapter of the international Congregation which did not take place in Muenster, but at the motherhouse of the American Sisters in Springfield, Illinois. The Covid pandemic also brought considerable restrictions for her international leadership tasks, which include visitation, i.e. a personal meeting with every single sister worldwide. As traveling was not possible from January 2020 to mid-2022, visits to the sisters in convents in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Kazakhstan, the USA, Japan, Vietnam and India were crammed into the past two years. At the same time, the convents around the world were equipped with the latest technology to enable many meetings to be held via video conference. Over the past six years, in the international team of the General Administration, Sister M. Margarete has worked together with another German sister, two sisters from the Indian Province and one sister each from Poland and Japan. The longest-serving Sister in this team, General Secretary Sister Christa Maria Frie, who joined the Congregation in 1964 and recently celebrated her 80th birthday, has been working in various positions in the Generalate for 32 years and is attending her sixth General Chapter. As the youngest delegate to the General Chapter, Vietnamese Sister Nichola Truong, a member of the Japanese Province, will be traveling to Germany with some sisters from the USA, where she is currently learning English. This group covers a distance of about 7000 km as the crow flies to travel from Illinois to Muenster, just like the Sisters from the Motherhouse of the Indian Province in Pithora. The distance from the Motherhouse of the Japanese Province in Himeji is 9,000 km as the crow flies; the sisters from the Polish motherhouse in Ołdrzychowice-Kłodzkie have a comparatively short journey of around 750 kilometers, while their fellow Sisters from the German Province live just three kilometers away from the location of the General Chapter.
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