New provincial of México Occidental feels ?unarmed, unworthy?

The new provincial of México Occidental revealed he felt ‘unarmed’ and ‘unworthy’ when he heard of his new appointment on June 7.

“My first reaction was to feel disarmed and unworthy of such service,” said Brother Miguel Ángel Santos Villarreal in an interview two days later.

“I know some personal gifts I’ve received that allow me to perform certain tasks with relative efficiency, but I also know well my limitations, my weaknesses and my fears that are real and imagined,” he told the general house press office in Rome on June 9.

But he added he also “trusts a lot” and that it is “very clear that this is a matter of trusting God and allowing one’s self to be guided.”

Br Miguel Ángel will start his new role at the end of December and will be based in Guadalajara, Mexico.

He will replace brother Eduardo Navarro, who revealed on the province’s website on June 8 that “we have prayed very earnestly that the Lord gives us a provincial ‘according to his heart’.”

The new provincial explained that one of his challenges will be to “go to meet the poor and helpless, which is also something that will transform us deeply.”

Br Miguel Ángel was previously in Asia and studied Mandarin for two years.

He then spent several years working in a university, where he both taught and served as a spiritual director for students.

The province of México Occidental includes both, part of Mexico and Haiti.