Sisters of the Sacred Heart Province Philippines-PNG joined the whole Institute in intense prayer on August 19-21 as the delegates of the 17th General Chapter discerned the next set of leaders for the Institute. It was with rejoicing when on the afternoon of August 20th, the facebook page of the Institute posted that Sr. Sandra Maggiolo, former General Councilor, was elected by the Capitular Sisters in Rome as the new Congregational Leader. We received the news of the election of her General Councilors towards the evening of the next day while we were in intense prayer for M. Maria Fracasso who was gravely ill in a hospital and who passed away the same day.
The elected General Councilors are Sr. Josemary Keelath as Vicar General, Sr. Melissa Dwyer, Sr. Mariana Litmanovich and Sr. Albertina dos Santos. The members of the General Council are intercultural as they represent respectively the different Canossian regions in the world – Europe, India, Asia-Oceania, America and Africa. We thank the Lord for the gift of our Congregational Leaders who generously accepted the mandate to lead the Institute and its mission for the next six years (2022-2028).
Anna Maria Babbini, current Superior General, issued a circular on August 22, the feast of the Queenship of Mary, to officially announce the newly elected members of the General Council. We are also deeply grateful to M. Anna Maria and her Council – Sr. Anne Tan, Sr. Elma Escalante, Sr. Sandra Maggiolo and Sr. Tina Baiguera for their untiring and generous service to the Institute for the past eight years (2014-2022) especially during their close accompaniment of the Provinces/Delegations during the pandemic.
The election of the Superior General and her Councilors is one of the duties of the General Chapter which happens every six years. Due to the pandemic, the 17th General Chapter which was due in 2020 was postponed several times until it was finally celebrated on August 8-30, 2022. M. Anna Maria enjoined all the Sisters “to continue the gift of exchange of prayer, support, fraternal charity and the willingness of working with the new General Council by revitalizing our consecration for the mission”.
On August 30th, the last day of the General Chapter, the 67 Capitular Sisters issued a letter of gratitude and hope to all the members of the Institute with the acclaim, “ We do not arrive at a destination except to start again. And here, where we are now, is but a stage on our journey.” In their searching together, they shared in their letter that it has broadened their horizon “to the cry of the poor, the cry of the earth and especially the cry of the young.” They enjoined us as companions to ‘put ourselves back in the school of Mary, asking her to accompany us in refocusing on the Word, responding to the invitation to be evangelizing Women, who love without measure.”
We thank all the Capitular Sisters for their availability and labor of love in searching, discerning and charting the future of the Institute through the resolutions they passed for our further discernment and implementation.
Our own Capitular delegates, Sr. Lilia Nuesca, Sr. Charito Balancin, and Sr. Maria Elena Adre returned to the country on September 3. The other two delegates – Sr. Elma Escalante, former General Councilor and Sr. Eugenia Umaclap remained in Rome.
