On May 9, 2014 he returned to the Father’s House Fra Giacomo Biniremembered not only for his six years as Minister General of the Order (1997 – 2003), but above all for his testimony: as a faithful, as a friar, as a minor.
A “profoundly human person, Friar Minor who “dared” to live the Gospel radically, true man of God, father and guide for many religious and lay people, generous missionary, “prophetic” voice for the Franciscan Family”, we read in the Necrology of Acta Ordinis 2014 vol. II (pages 348-364), edited by Friar Vincenzo Brocanelli, OFM and which helps us to outline the figure of Brother Giacomo and above all his incredible relevance in the contemporary world.
Born in a small village in the Marche region in Ostra Vetere (Ancona-Italy), on 23 August 1938, he lived a childhood marked by the Second World War; at the age of 12 he entered the Seraphic College in Potenza Picena to become a Friar Minor in the Picena Province of S. Giacomo della Marca. He made his solemn profession on 17 September 1963 and was ordained a priest on 14 March 1964.
They were the years of Vatican Council II (1962 – 1965) and the young Brother Giacomo allowed himself to be influenced by the conciliar spirit, completing his higher studies in liturgy, which he taught to theology students of Jesi and to the seminarians of Fano. At the convent of San Bernardino in Urbino, as Guardian, he developed a new style of life and activity for the Fraternity, opening the doors of the convent to the families of the parish, paying great attention to the “signs of the times”: his healthy inner restlessness it always led us to look for something deeper, more authentic, more faithful to the Franciscan charism. Hence his theorization of the Franciscan identity “on the way”, so relevant today, always on the move, under construction, as a response to a continuous search for evangelical authenticity. «It is a need required by the Gospel itself and by historical changes. It is the condition for not being left out of history. An open identity, that is, attentive to the signs of the times, to our world. Open in the sense of belonging to the Church, to the Order rather than to a specific Entity”, he wrote (and never spoke) for the Congress on the Missions of 19-28 May 2014.
In this very dynamic vocation of his, Brother Giacomo did not back down from the “Project Africa”the “missionary call” that the General Definitory led by Br. John Vaughn presented in 1982.
He was in Rwanda from 1983 to 1989 and to summarize his missionary work we report the testimony of a young Rwandan, who later became Clarissa: «In Kivumu, his passage is profoundly marked by the indelible memory of a Franciscan life close to the people, rich in minorities , of simplicity, and of all the Franciscan virtues. The friars had abolished all distances, they spoke the language of our ancestors like us, they ate the same potatoes and appreciated the same local drink perhaps more than us. They were happy with little and helped everyone.”
Brother Giacomo took care of many things, especially of training; attentive listener, faithful friar minor, he knew that his presence on African soil had the objective ofimplantation of the Order of Friars Minor, a concept that he did not fail to remind the new missionaries and local novices. He moved to Tanzania from 1989 to 1992, and was then appointed Provincial Minister of the newly formed Province of St. Francis at the Nairobi Chapter in 1992. In the same year the “Ratio Formationis” of the Province, on the trail of the “Ratio Formationis Franciscanae” of the Order published in 1991. «Our formation must enable us to read the signs of the times in the light of the Gospel, instead of conveniently using non-inculturated structures or “what we have usually done elsewhere”» he said during the Chapter of the Mats of 1993 celebrated in Nairobi.
Almost surprisingly, in the General Chapter of Assisi in 1997, Br. Giacomo Bini was elected Minister General: there are many documents produced in that six-year period and subsequently, still relevant today like his words pronounced in the Pentecost Letter of 2000: «If we dared…! If only we dared to trust Him totally, as Francis did!».
In this brief memory – perhaps too short for his very important figure – we report his words pronounced on the occasion of the opening of the General Chapter of 2003: «We are called to verify what we are and are doing, our life as disciples and apostles sent by Jesus throughout the world. Above all, we are invited to intelligently discern the seeds of new lifeoften hidden, which emerge in the context of our cultures, to make them develop under the breath of the Spirit”.
