The collaboration agreements between entities and the coordination of joint activities will shape the next three years of the plan.
The provincial priors, vice-provincials, and provincial vicars of the region, organized through the Interprovincial Conference of the Dominicans of Latin America and the Caribbean (CIDALC), met from February 9th to 15th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The assembly was held at the Emmaus House of St. Benedict’s Monastery. The region is composed of six provinces: St. Augustine in Argentina and Chile, Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas in Brazil, St. John the Baptist in Peru, St. Louis Bertrán in Colombia, St. Vincent Ferrer in Central America, and St. James in Mexico; two vice-provinces: St. Catherine of Siena in Ecuador and Bolivia; and three provincial vicariates: Fray Antón Montesino in Uruguay and Paraguay, Venezuela, and Fray Pedro de Córdoba in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
This was a week of common life centered on prayer, liturgical celebration, study, and attentive listening. Each superior presented the situation of his entity within the current socio-political context, the life of the brothers in their various fields of preaching, and both the opportunities and challenges they face.
Online messages from the Master of the Order and the Socius for Intellectual Life were listened to. Bro. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, Master of the Order, addressed the participants with reflections based on his experience from canonical visitations to the entities of the region. Bro. Pablo Sícouly, OP, Socius for Intellectual Life, spoke about his area of responsibility. Also joining online, Bro. Ignace Berthot, OP, from Haiti, presented the situation of the country and the friars who preach there. Among the invited guests were Bro. Juan Manuel Hernández, OP, Socius for Fraternal Life and Formation, and Bro. James Spahn, OP, from the Province of St. Albert the Great, representing the Provinces of the United States.
In the context of coordinating and organizing joint activities, collaboration agreements between certain entities were discussed, along with activities in different zones (Southern Cone, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, Bolivarian), cooperation with the Dominican Family, task organization for the next three years, and, especially, formation.
A key commitment of the assembly was to continue supporting the Dominican School of Formators in collaboration with the Confederation of Dominican Sisters of Latin America and the Caribbean (CODALC).
Bro. Fernando Delgado, OP
Socius for Latin America and the Caribbean
