On 13 May, the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fátima, Fr Carlos Alberto Candeias do Nascimento, CMF, Provincial Superior, announced to the Province the celebration, God willing, of the II Provincial Chapter of Fátima.
This important event will take place from 27 December 2025 to 3 January 2026 at the Casa de Acolhimento e Espiritualidade in Fátima (Portugal). Among other matters, the Chapter will include the election of the new Provincial Government.
To accompany this journey of discernment and the Chapter itself, the Superior General has appointed Fr Pedro Belderrain as President of the Chapter.
It will also be an opportunity for the Province, represented by the capitulars, to reflect on its current situation and discern the new horizons to which it is being called. As stated in our Constitutions:
“The Provincial Chapter is the instrument which represents the Province and expresses the participation, joint responsibility and communion of the whole Province. The greatest care should be taken to see to it that through this chapter the provincial community may achieve the greatest inner strength in its missionary life while adapting and opening itself to the general community of the Institute” (CC 122).
In this spirit, we are now invited to prepare ourselves inwardly and to take an active part in the process:
“From now on and throughout the coming months we want to enliven our search for God’s dreams for us and involve all of us – actively and positively – in the process of provincial discernment.
With heart, mind and will open to the Spirit, in communion with the Congregation and the Church, ask God for the courage to accept the truth about our own reality, the wisdom to respond with fidelity and creativity to God’s calls in our time, and the hope to face the future without fear.
May the presence of the Heart of Mary, the intercession of our Fr Founder and of our brother martyrs help us to live intensely this time of grace.”
