From 3 to 7 June, the Master of the Order, Brother Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, accompanied by the Socius for Latin America and the Caribbean, Brother Fernando Delgado, OP, made their canonical visitation of the Provincial of Vicariate Antón Montesino in the Province of Hispania. The vicariate includes the Convento Santo Domingo Ra’ykuéra in Asunción and the Casa Santísima Trinidad in Montevideo, and runs the Centro de estudios Santo Tomás in Buenos Aires. The friars are assigned to the convent in Asunción and the house in Montevideo, from which they also preach for the centre in Buenos Aires, alternating between travelling to the centre and conducting online classes.
The friars are involved in a variety of apostolic activities, all of which are Dominican and evangelical in character. These include parish ministry in three parishes in Paraguay and two in Uruguay, service to the poor and marginalised through social activities in the slums of the cities as well as among peasants, teaching (especially theology) in various universities and study centres, pastoral ministry and teaching in centres for the formation of consecrated life through courses and workshops on spirituality and consecrated life as well as for seminarians and priests of the diocesan clergy, pastoral work and teaching in schools and chaplaincies, and online preaching through various initiatives including preaching the Sunday Gospel and conducting weekly or monthly Scripture studies.
While there is a strong community in Montevideo and another in Asunción, both missions have had to discern and make decisions in response to the restructuring taking place in the Order as a whole insofar as it affects the vicariate. In addition, the two countries where there are permanent communities have had to adjust to vastly different circumstances: Uruguay is a very secular society, while Paraguay continues to have a significant number of Catholics among its population. In both places the confreres are responding creatively to their situation in order to live their vocation as preachers accordingly. This they do in collaboration with the Dominican Family and the many faithful and benefactors who support the mission.
The visitors thank all the brothers of the Vicariate of Antón Montesino for their work in arranging the various meetings, both with the communities of friars as well as with the Dominican Family and pastoral groups. Celebrating the Eucharistic together strengthened the community; a community which expresses itself in forms of synodality in order to accompany the Church and its renewal.
