The General Minister on Swiss TV

The news item on the site of Swiss TV

RSI LA 1, Sunday March 27, 2016

The Easter edition of the program Gioco del Mondo is not to be missed. Damiano Realini’s guest is a very important religious at the worldwide level. To set up his stature we could say many things: He is the General Minister of the Capuchin Order, representing eleven thousand friars on all the continents. He is a professor of theology. He meets with the Pope regularly and when he passes through the halls of the Vatican the Swiss Guards click their heels. But maybe what counts the most is the title that, in fact, he represents better than the others: he is the successor of St. Francis.

Yes, Br. Mauro Jöhri sees himself fully in the Franciscan spirit, made of poverty, obedience, and chastity. Born in Bivio, a town of 200 inhabitants at an altitude of 1800 meters, he the son of a road worker and a seamstress. Brother Mauro was educated at Faido (“We watched the Second Vatican Council on TV while the other channel was showing the hockey derby”), he was guardian at the shrine of the Madonna del Sasso, and director of the friary of Bigorio. His path led him to travel everywhere, from the academies of theology to the streets among the poor.

Today he lives at the General Curia in Rome and when he can, snowshoes on his feet, he returns to the Grison snow. Br. Mauro will surprise us as he confesses the human difficulties and doubts of a man called to wear that habit of St. Francis.

Watch the interview on the site of Swiss TV