On April 5, Jean-Claude Chupin OFM, a 95 year old Franciscan and co-founder of the Lamb Community, a public association of the faithful of the Church that Jean-Claude founded with Marie-Thierry Coqueray, a Dominican nun.
During his funeral, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn recalled the Franciscan vocation of this Breton who, despite starting this new foundation, was faithful to his call in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi: “To the end he was a faithful disciple of St. Francis. Of this St. Francis who loved Jesus so much that this love transformed his life completely, he oriented his path in such a way that he chose to follow Jesus in poverty and abjection,” the Cardinal emphasized.
Encounter between St. Francis and St. Dominic
Schönborn, bishop in charge of the Community for many years, also wanted to point out the encounter between the Franciscan and Dominican charisms that became a reality in the Community of the Lamb: “St. Francis and St. Dominic met. And they met in concrete persons. There were three Dominican sisters that I knew because I studied in Paris and I knew the rue de Condé, the student hostel where these sisters lived. And during the turmoil of ”68 and the years that followed, they felt a vocation, a call to a more radical Dominican life, as at the beginning, when St. Dominic lived here in the region for ten years, in begging and proclaiming the Gospel. Between these three sisters and Brother Jean-Claude, a friendship was forged (...) It was the same love for Jesus, the Gospel and the poor, which made them meet and walk in parallel along similar paths".
In this sense, the Cardinal pointed out that “the important thing is that the charism remains in the Church. Because a charism is a gift of God for the Church. It is not the merit of some people. The question is whether we accept the charism, the gift of God, the grace given to the Church”.
The three votes
Likewise, before the mortal remains of “little brother Jean-Claude”, the Cardinal wanted to highlight the faithful living of the vows of obedience, chastity and poverty that the co-founder of the Community of the Lamb lived, recalling how “Brother Jean-Claude, who practiced confession a lot, practiced mercy a lot and helped us not to be discouraged in the search for this culture (of chastity), this grace, this gift of chastity in our relationships, in our personal lives”.
The Community of the Lamb
The Community of the Lamb, which saw the light of day in 1981, is today spread throughout France, Argentina, Austria, Chile, Spain, the United States, Italy and Poland. The Community brings together one hundred and sixty sisters and about thirty little brothers from different countries who live a charism, with Dominican roots, based on mendicant poverty, itinerancy and contemplation.
