Over the end of May and the beginning of June, the General Councillor for South America, Fr Alex Lam, was on a general visitation with the Province of Brazil
Just a few months before the next Intermediate Chapter, which the Prior General is also expected to attend and which will coincide with the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the province, Provincial Fr Mauricio Manosso took the opportunity to show Fr Lam first hand the exciting state of affairs in which our brothers in Brazil find themselves.
"The province has grown a lot in terms of unity and identity; with a sense that everyone feels part of it and wants to fight for it", the General Councillor tells us shortly after leaving Rio de Janeiro to go to Argentina, to be with the Postulator General of the Order, Fr Josef Sciberras, at the opening of the diocesan phase of the process of canonization of Spanish Augustinian missionary Salustiano Miguélez Romero.
At present, the Province of Brazil has 10 houses and over 40 friars. They are undertaking new foundations, administering the community of Montevideo (whose management corresponded to the Vicariate of Argentina) for the last four years and have opened a new parish dedicated to St Monica in the town of San Jose do Rio Preto, on the grounds of an Augustinian school that was already there.
Fr Lam assures us that during his canonical visitation, where he conveyed the closeness, affection and pastoral commitment of Fr Alejandro Moral, he saw for himself the challenges inherent in a newly created province in constant flux. "There is much hope with this growth. I see in the confreres the enthusiasm to carry this project forward. And we can help: to encourage them, accompany them and make them aware that the General Curia is by their side."