The Champagnat Novitiate of Cochabamba
The Champagnat Novitiate of the South America Region, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is an international house of formation where young people from the Provinces of Brasil Centro-Norte, Brasil Centro-Sul, Brasil Sul-Amazônia, Cruz del Sur (Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) and Santa María de los Andes (Bolivia, Chile and Peru) begin their journey of consecrated life.
The Regional Novitiate was created in 2017, following the creation of the South America Region in 2016. In 2021, due to the health emergency, the novitiate began on 1 May, with 11 novices: 10 in the first and 1 in the second.
The formation team is made up of Brothers Rubens José Falqueto, novice master, from the Province of Brasil Centro-Norte; Guillermo Mautino, from the Province of Cruz del Sur; and Otalivio Sarturi, from Brasil Centro-Sul.
According to the Initial Formation Plan, the Cochabamba novitiate proposes the following programmes: human development, fraternal life, Marist style, apostolic and Marist spirituality, and global availability.
Novices
This year, 2021, Gustavo Humberto Vieira Leocádio, from the Province of Brasil Centro-Norte, who entered the novitiate on 2 February 2020, made his First Religious Profession in Belo Horizonte on 12 December 2021, together with Gabriel Brito Costa, from the same Province.
With the aim, above all, of cultivating the Marist consecrated life, the members of the community made the following retreats during the course of this year: Mary, our Good Mother; The Disciples of Emmaus; Marcellin Champagnat, Friend of the Children; and The Marist Martyrs.
The novices who have completed the first year of their novitiate are: Bruno Felipe Rosa and José Augusto Wendler (Province Brasil Centro-Sul); Leandro Frias Ortiz, Bolivia (Province of Santa María de los Andes); Daniel Pablo Alberto, Argentina (Province Cruz del Sur); Manoel Souza Ferreira and Ranielle Lopez da Silva (Province Brasil Centro-Norte); Enos da Silva Angelo, Juan Pablo Menezes Soares, João Pedro Würzius Zambenedetti and Alexandre do Nascimento Lima (Province Brasil Sul Amazônia).