31st December, the last day of the year 2019 began with thanksgiving mass at 7.30 am, presided by the group of Zimbabwe. The morning session of the day was moderated by Fr. Manuel Arroba. We started with listening to the ‘Definition of Claretian’ reminding us of our positive attitudes of being a Claretian Missionary as per the desire of Our Founder, and then we invoked our Mother Mary praying the ‘Hail Mary’.
Minutes of the previous day was read out by Fr. Fermin Rodriguez, the Secretary of the Chapter and it was approved by the members.
Provincial Superior was given the opportunity to express his mind about the formation of the Provincial government with the different prefectures. He proposed to have the following Prefectures:
Prefect of Economy & Consultor,
Prefect of Spirituality and Formation & Consultor,
Prefect of Apostolate & Consultor
Prefect of Youth and Vocation & Consultor(PJV)
He said that the Prefect of Apostolate can work with Secretaries in different countries for better coordination. The government will live together in the Curia.
Then the Process of Discernment for the Election of these prefectures was initiated. There were discussions in a group of four people, changing the groups for four times, each one sharing his opinion regarding the persons who can be elected for each of the prefectures. It was a very good time to know about the mind of one another. At the end, sounding for the prefectures were done.
After looking at the results of the sounding, the process of Election was carried out. The following were the results of the Elections:
Prefect of Economy & Consultor – Fr. Manuel R. Segura Giráldez
Prefect of Apostolate & Consultor – Fr. Jorge Palacios Sanchez.
Prefect of Youth and Vocation (PJV) & Consultor – Fr. João Luis Escaleira Alves
Prefect of Spirituality and Formation & Consultor – Fr. Félix Martínez Lozano
The Chapter also decided about few others matters such as: Tellers; Local Superiors and Econome and Vicars elections; Permanent Council; Number of nominations for Chapter by Provincial Government; Duration of terms for Superiors.
After the break, Fr. Gonzalo Fernández facilitated a time to review our expectations around the Chapter. Then he invited us to write in groups a “statement of aspiration” of what we would like to see in our province in the next years.
We ended the day with a prayer vigil prepared by the group of students under the theme “A Polyhedral Province”. It was a moment centred on giving thanks to God for all that we have experienced during this year, and to continue to ask God to enlighten us on the way to the Chapter. During this vigil, some of the capitulants shared what God has given us in the corners where they live. We finished at 8 p.m.
