The Superior General of the Salesian Order, Fr. Pascual Chavez, has
announced that the six Salesian provinces in Spain will be combined in
2014 to form two large provinces.
He said the change will optimize the
work of the order, revitalize its charism and boost evangelization
among young people.
One of the new provinces will be the Mediterranean Province, noted a
statement from the order.
The province will include the current
Salesian regions of Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla, which oversee 79
Salesian communities and 556 religious.
The Mediterranean Province will extend to the autonomous communities
of Catalonia,
Baleares, Aragon, Valencia, Albacete, Murcia, Andalucia,
Extremadura, Canarias and Andorra.
The other province will be the Northeastern Central Province, which
will bring together the regions of Bilbao, Leon and Madrid. It will
extend to the communities of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque
Country, Navarre, La Rioja, Castilla y Leon, Madrid and Castilla La
Mancha.
The new province will oversee 686 religious from 64 different
houses.
The restructuring will help optimize the work of the Salesians in a
land “rich in Christian and Salesian expressions,” Fr. Chavez said.
He exhorted Salesians to actively participate in the process in order
to “renew our consecrated life and reinvigorate the Salesian charism
in Spain, especially in the area of vocations.”
There are some 16,000 Salesians worldwide with 1,200 working in Spain.