Foundation of the Province South Brazil-Amazonia
On December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Province South Brazil-Amazonia was created, the result of the union of the Province of Rio Grande do Sul with the District of Amazonia. Brother Inacio Etges, who up to that moment was Provincial of Rio Grande do Sul, became the first Provincial.
The new Administrative Union is present in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in the Federal District and in the Region of Amazonia.
The Eucharistic celebration which marked the foundation, underlined the union of these three Brazilian Regions, symbolized each one of them by a typical element: wild pumpkin of Rio Grande do Sul, the ‘candangos’ from Brasilia – those born in Brasilia – and the canoe from Amazonia.
The celebration was in Veranópolis and the Mass was presided over by the Archbishop Dom Roque Paloschi, named bishop of Porto Velho.
Brother Emili Turú, the Superior General of the Marist Institute, presided over the act of creation of the new Province and the tasking office of the Provincial. Br. Victor Preciado, General Councilor was also present.
In the reading of the letter that Brother Emili Turú sent to the Brothers during the consultation for the unification, it was decreed: “beginning at this moment, the Marist Province of Rio Grande do Sul and the Marist District of Amazonia no longer exist. We welcome the Marist Province of South Brazil-Amazonia”.
To mark this moment, he gave two icons to Br. Inacio. The first one, an icon of the Ascension of the Lord, was hand painted in Rumania and symbolizes the challenge of placing very different realities in communion with one another. He also gave him the picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a replica of the one that the first Brothers took to Southern Brazil when they arrived there.
Deeply moved, Brother Inacio affirmed that “the time has come to end with frontiers and geographic barriers, looking now at the broader and more extensive horizon and admire the rising of the new dawn”. With our feet firmly on the present, I invite all to contemplate the past and to look toward the future with hope. This is a future that requires courage, availability, openness, listening and an attentive look. “It is the time of fidelity to God and to the dream of Champagnat”, he said.
That same day also the first Provincial Chapter was begun which will end on December 11.