Purpose: The St. Michael of the Saints Fund, is a solidarity fund to help those jurisdictions that do not have sufficient means to provide for the costs assumed for the maintenance of its students during the course of the year of preparation for solemn profession.

Statutes

1. The Order of the Most Holy Trinity, mindful of the priority of formation and aware of the economic difficulties of some jurisdictions of the Order to provide sufficiently for the formation needs of its formandi, in response to the wish expressed by the General Chapter to grow in the communication of goods among the jurisdictions in order to increase communion, creates the FUND “SAN MICHELE DEI SANTI” for formation.

Creation and purposes of the Fund

2. The “Saint Michael of the Saints Fund” is an economic fund formed by the contributions that, in a voluntary way, are given by the Provinces, Vicariates and Delegations of the Order, and by the donations received in this sense, coming from institutions or individuals who, in this way, want to express their effective solidarity to the formation of the religious.

Fund administration

3. The administration of the Fund is the responsibility of the Fund’s Board of Directors.
4. The following are members of the Board of Directors: the General Minister of the Order, the President of the General Secretariat of Formation, the General Treasurer, two Provincial Ministers (or ad instar Provincialis) of those provinces that collaborate economically with the Fund, who will be designated by the General Council at the beginning of each sexennium.
5. The position of treasurer of the Fund will be held by the General Treasurer.

Operation of the Fund

6. The Fund’s Board of Directors will meet once a year, in November or December, after convening by the General Treasurer, to approve the budget for the current year and approve the budget for the following year. Said budget will be prepared according to the requests received by the Fund’s Board of Directors, which will be studied and approved, possibly, at this annual meeting.
7. Provincial Ministers or ad instar Provincialis who submit a training project for the benefit of one or more religious in their jurisdiction, in writing addressed to the Board of Directors, may present themselves as beneficiaries of aid from the Fund.
8. The deadline for delivering said request is October 31 of each year. Requests that arrive at their destination after this date will be postponed until the following year.
9. In the request, the Provincial Minister or ad instar Provincialis, will indicate as clearly as possible: the name(s) of the beneficiaries, what the training project to which the application relates consists of and the interest therein, the economic cost required to meet the expenses (never exceeding the following year’s limits), and the reason for using the Fund to obtain the requested aid.
10. Requests must be submitted, necessarily, by the Provincial Minister or ad instar Provincialis. As a matter of principle, any request sent by another person (even if it is a trainer or local minister), will not be considered.
11. The Board of Directors, having regard to the sums available, the economic conditions of the requesting jurisdiction, the sense of equity, and the interest following the educational experience expressed, will grant such aid as it can provide, by an unappealable judgment, which will be communicated as soon as possible to the Minister concerned.
12. They have priority, ongoing requests for the project of the “Year of Preparation for Solemn Profession” as established by the 2007 General Chapter.
13. The Board of Directors, after reading each request, considering its content, and discussing the situation of the Fund and the actual availability of the assets to be distributed, will decide on each case by secret deliberative vote. In the event that one of the five voters is missing, and there is a tie between positive and negative votes, the opinion of the General Minister will tilt the decision toward the positive or negative outcome. In case the General Minister is unable to attend the session, the General Vicar, in his absence, another general councilor or other religious expert in the matter, with voice and vote, will be invited to take part.
14. The decision of the Board will be final, and will be communicated to the senior minister signing the request, as soon as possible.
15. In case of the extinction of the Fund, by decision of the General Council of the Order, any remaining balance shall be allocated for the benefit of education, according to the decision of the General Minister and his Council.