4 The nearness of so great and happy an event as this Centenary carries with it the counsel that We avail Ourselves of your services, Venerable Brothers, as the messengers and interpreters of Our words to arouse in Christian peoples that Franciscan spirit which differs no wise from evangelical ideals and practices, to help in recalling to memory on such a timely occasion the teachings and example of the life of the Patriarch of Assisi. It is a pleasure for Us to compete, as it were, in devotion towards the Saint with Our Predecessors, who never permitted any centenary of the principal events of his life to pass by without exhorting the faithful to celebrate it, confirming their exhortations by the teaching authority of the Apostles which they possessed.
Source: Rite Expiatis (Vatican.va)