History The Maltese Franciscans had been working on an individual and collective level for many years in favour of Justice and Peace and for the safeguard of creation. The Pope John XXIII Peace Lab has been working for the last 25 years under the guidance of a friar, but it is run by a committee of lay people and not by the Province. One of its achievements has been the establishing of the Pope John XXIII Award for Kindness which is given every year. Other inititiatives of a more collective nature have been the telephone service known as Servizz Nisimghek which ran for 4 years every day between 6p.m. and 6a.m. This was run by a group of young friars. A parallel inititiative to the telephone service was the Franciscan Visits which are carried out 3 times a year in the various villages and small towns. The Visit is conducted by a group of Franciscans, both priests and lay friars, and they live in a parish for a week. The main elements guiding the Visit is that the friars take nothing with them and beg their food every day. They accept no money, and sing in the streets. Besides these innovative features, they carry out a programme of intense evangelization to every age group in the parish. Every parish is tackled according to its needs as shown to the friars by the parish priest and his Council. This type of apostolate has now been accepted by the Province as one of its ministries. Another important initiative carried out by the Province was the setting up of a house for homeless young men. This has been running for about 15 years, and although the initiative was taken by one friar, it has now been adopted by the Province. We of 4 Justice and Peace believe that through the media we can proclaim and spread the Franciscan message in favour of humanity and creation through the modern means of communication. This site has been set up to share with others the ways and views that the Franciscans have of our present and future towards the year 2000 and beyond!

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