Animators for SFO Fraternities will be trained as from January 1999, with the aim of providing valuable help to the National SFO Assistants in Malta. Although the number of Franciscan friars in Malta is still high, it is often hard to find well trained Local Assistants. For this reason Fr. Noel Muscat OFM, National Assistant, has asked for permission to conduct a course prepared by the National Conference of SFO Assistants in the USA, aimed at the training of Local Assistants and Animators. The Secular Franciscans who followed the Franciscan Course are well prepared to undertake these study sessions. Recently, the three Franciscan Ministers Provincial of Malta have praised the initiatives aiming at the unification of the SFO in Malta, which began way back in 1995 with the request of Fr. Raymond Camilleri OFM, then Minister Provincial, to Emanuela De Nunzio, General SFO Assistant, as well as with the establishment of the National Conference of SFO Assistants.

The Provisional SFO National Council has been meeting once a month during 1998 in order to get introduced into the work of merging the SFO in Malta into one unified Order at grassroots level. During the summer months a new translation of the General SFO Statutes, the Statutes for General Assistants, the Guidelines for Formation and a preliminary draft of National Statutes were prepared by Fr. Noel Muscat OFM. They will form the basis of the work of the Provisional National Council during 1999, with the aim of arriving at the election of a National Council recognized by CIOFS (International SFO Council) during the year 2000. For that occasion the Minister General SFO and one of the General SFO Assistants will be invited to conduct a fraternal and pastoral visitation of the SFO Fraternities of Malta, as well as to preside over the elective chapter.

On Saturday 24 January 1998 the SFO in Malta had its first elections for the constitution of the Provisional National Council. The elections were held at the Franciscan Capuchin friary at Floriana. The members who were elected to the Provisional National Council are Joe Pace (Minister), Anna Attard Baldacchino (Vice-Minister), Evelyn Vella Clark (Secretary), Franca Zammit (Bursar), Lina Brockdorff (Formation Director), Godwin Vella Clark, Peter Paul Abela and Francis Spiteri. The three National Assistants are also members of the Council. The Council has been elected on a provisional basis, and will have to go through the process of receiving formal recognition by the International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order

The Franciscan Youth group of Hamrun has increased under the expert direction of Fr. Marcello Ghirlando OFM. It is now made up of 4 age-groups, totally 80 youngsters, from their early teens to early adulthood. The older members are now in charge of the formation of the younger members. This older group went for a two-week retreat and visit to the Holy Land. The visit was organized by Fr. Marcello, who is also the Holy Land Commissarius in Malta.