FRANCISCAN EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE, THE

FRANCISCAN EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE, THE. - Periodical publication issued by the association of the same name of English-speaking Franciscans. The F. E. C. was founded in 1919 in St. Louis (United States) on the initiative of Fr. Thomas Plasmann O. F. M., with the aim of safeguarding the principles of Catholic education and of promoting and assisting, with teaching aids and other means, the educational work of the Franciscans of America.

The institution, which currently has its center in St. Bonaventure College in New York, has been joined by all the Franciscan provinces, including the Conventual Friars Minor and Capuchins, of the various English-speaking territories, not only of America, but of England, Ireland and Australia. The association, which has given a notable impulse to the Franciscan movement, especially in America, is convened annually in a congress for the study of educational, literary, philosophical or theological problems. The discussions and papers of these conventions are published in volumes in the form of "reports." Of the first fifteen "reports" (1919-33) a detailed "index" has been published separately. Since 1941 this publication has merged with the journal Franciscan Studies (v.).