On September 3, 2023, the Vice-Provincial Chapter of the Vice-Province of St. Catherine of Siena of Ecuador elected Br. Armando Villalta Alfonso Salazar, OP, as its new Prior Vice-Provincial. After confirmation by the Master of the Order, Br. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, Br. Armando accepted this responsibility on September 5, 2023.
Brother Armando succeeds Brother Francisco José Montaluisa, OP, who held the office of Prior Vice-Provincial from 2019 to 2023.
Brother Armando was born on November 19, 1981 in Lucero, Loja, Ecuador. He made his novitiate in the Province of San Luis Bertrán in Colombia and made first profession on February 2, 2001. He was ordained priest on February 7, 2007.
He has served as vice-master of novices in the Dominican Province of St. John the Baptist in Peru and Master of Postulants for two terms in the house of St. Albert the Great in Ambato, been a member of the Vice-Provincial Council for three terms, a parish priest in Ambato and Baños, and superior of the houses of St. Albert the Great in Ambato and Holy Rosary in Cuenca. He has also held the offices of Prior of the Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary of Holy Water in Baños and Religious Assistant of the Federation of Dominican Nuns in Ecuador. He was Prior Vice-Provincial of the Vice-Province of Ecuador from 2015 to 2019.
Brother Armando holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, a Masters in the Canon Law of Marriage, and is concluding his studies as a lawyer. At the time of his election he was in his second term as Prior of the Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary of Agua Santa de Baños.
We entrust our brother to your prayers as he commences this service to the Order and the Church in Ecuador.
