On 25 November 2023, in the Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary in Santiago de Chile, the friars gathered in Provincial Chapter re-elected Brother Juan José Baldini, OP, as Prior Provincial of the Province of Argentina of St. Augustine for the 2023-2027 term. The election was confirmed by the Master of the Order, Brother Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP. Br. Juan José accepted on 26 November 2023.
Br. Juan José was born in General San Martín (Mendoza, Argentina) on 18 February 1976. He entered the Order of Preachers in 1994 and completed his novitiate in Mar del Plata, making his religious profession on 4 March 1995. He studied philosophy and theology in the Order’s study centres in Argentina (UNSTA in Tucumán and CEOP in Buenos Aires). He was ordained a priest on 22 November 2003. Subsequently, he did further studies for a Licentiate in Theology at the Pontifical University of San Esteban in Salamanca, Spain, another school of the Order.
On his return to Argentina, he did undergraduate studies in Psychology (UCA), and in Chile (UAH). On 19 October 2017, he was elected Vicar of the Provincial Vicariate of St. Lawrence Martyr of Chile with the mission of incorporating the vicariate into the Province of Argentina, as the Master of the Order had requested in December 2016.
As Vicar Provincial, he participated in the Provincial Chapter of 2019, in the Convent of San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina), where he was elected Prior Provincial, a position he held until the beginning of the current Chapter. During his first term, he was entrusted with a variety of tasks including the restructuring of the Province in both countries and the merging of the philosophy and theology stages of formation in Buenos Aires.
