Second Latin-American Meeting
Cartagena Colombia
- 27/30 November 1992 - CONCLUSIONS
Their Excellencies the Presidents of the National Associations and the
Ambassadors of the Order meeting in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) for the
Second Latin-American Meeting of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, — Express their deepest
appreciation to the President of the Colombian Association who has hosted the
Second Latin-American Meeting, asking him to convey the warmest gratitude of
all the members of the Council, the direct collaborators and all the members of
the Association. — Express their complete
satisfaction for the work carried out by the Organizing Committee, stressing
its great merit in solving the difficult logistic and secretarial problems of
the Meeting. — Demonstrate their great
satisfaction for the work carried out and for the conclusions reached which are
set out here below: 1) Greater and renewed
efforts for the decisions taken on the Order’s spirituality, with particular
reference to the Knights of the Third Class, bearing in mind future changes in
the Constitutional Charter of the Sovereign Order. The Standing Committee will
continue the dialogue with the Latin-American Associations with the aim of
proposing solutions and, consequently, changes to the Constitutional Charter
and Code, to be sent before 30 April to the Committee specially set up by the
Grand Magistry, and chaired by the Receiver of the Common Treasure, Count Carlo
Marullo di Condojanni. 2) Establishment of a
Co-ordination Centre to obtain means for distributing aid in the American
continent, to be organized under the supervision of the offices of the Receiver
of the Common Treasure and the Hospitaller in the premises generously offered
by the American Association in Boca Raton, Florida. (Before next April the
Presidency of the Centre must be established, and its Board will be elected by
the Assembly of Presidents of the Latin-American National Associations for a
term of two years and which members cannot be re-elected immediately so as to
permit constant renewal. During the first Presidency, the procedures will be
defined and internal regulations drawn up in agreement with the National
Associations. The Presidency will have the particular task of setting up the
Historical Archives of the American Associations. The National Associations
will cooperate to the operation of the Co-ordination Centre with half of the
budget. For the first two years the Grand Magistry will pay the remaining half
of the expenses through AIOM (International Aid of the Order of Malta). 3) A partnership policy is
recommended, according to which the heads of the Associations will help the
more recently established ones. 4) Initiatives should be
studied and possibly doubled with regards to the "Simelodan" projects
of Maltanet, the satellite information programme for doctors, and the
possibility of studying the integration of a Grand Magistry databank with the
aid for civil defence. They express the hope that in 1994 the Third Latin-American Meeting of
the Sovereign Military Order of Malta will take place and that the Standing
Committee will work to promote it, suggesting the host country. It is the duty
of the Associations to protect the Order’s identity with regards to
unrecognised associations. Likewise, the Embassies must act decisively to
prevent them being established. — The Standing Committee
will co-ordinate the two previous points with the Monaco Committee and the
Grand Magistry. An archive and data bank will be created in the committee’s
headquarters and will remain available for the Associations and Embassies. — Information on the Order’s history, present status and welfare
activities, as well as more specific information on the Knights and Dames, is
recommended. The Associations must prepare plans of action with short, medium and
long term goals as regards both quantity and quality. When preparing these
plans the aim of strengthening spirituality will also be borne in mind, both
for members and volunteers, and especially the young helpers, who can become future
members and thus increase the Order’s human resources and its range of action. The co-ordination of these actions will help, in the preparation of the
Latin-American programme for enabling the Committee to implement the aforesaid
objectives. Once approved by the National Associations, this programme will be
sent to the Grand Magistry in Rome. The contribution of the papers presented, as well as those of the
members who participated in the second meeting, will be included in these
conclusions, which in turn will be published by the Grand Magistry with the
co-operation of the Standing Committee and the Colombian Association. It is
recommended that the Latin-American National Associations liase as closely as
possible, promoting regional meetings when necessary with the aim of helping to
strengthen the Order in South and Central America. It is recommended that
Latin-American National Associations recruit new members who, having deeply
absorbed the spirit of the Order, can become effective elements for helping it
to achieve a greater social penetration and carry out duties involving the New
Evangelisation, the urgency of which has been repeatedly stressed by the Holy
See. Over the next two
years all the Latin-American National Associations must promote, within the
range of their possibilities, courses and conferences and the dissemination of
publications in general, exploiting every means available to disseminate the
new catechism of the Universal Church, with the aim of sharing in the great
task of the New Evangelisation which His Holiness John Paul II has asked us to
carry out. |