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Canonical Visit to the Province of Spain-Italy

November 15, 2021

From November 17 to December 29, the Superior General will continue the canonical visit to the Province of Spain-Italy.

She began it on October 1 in the community of Rome, visiting the sisters in Caivano and in the city of Rome itself, in the Regina Pacis House. In Spain, it will start with the communities less known to her and some that have a diversity of presences.

But what is a canonical visit? What is it for? Who is visited? What do you do?

According to the basic dictionary of Canon Law online, it is an instrument of a juridical and pastoral nature, which allows the ecclesiastical superior to exercise the right and fulfill the obligation to access the institutions, places, people, things, etc. that are subject to his jurisdiction,  to verify that communion is lived and the purpose to which all the pastoral activity that depends on it tends is taken care of.

No. 232 of our Constitutions  says: “It will also help that you visit the Sisters and communities in the places where they live and work, at least once every six years…”

This is how Graciela explains it in a letter to the Province: “It is a meeting,  mutual knowledge,  dialogue, expression of desires, needs  … It is an experience of faith, in which we all get confirmed in our vocation. My great desire and main objective in this visit is to LISTEN and KNOW”.

At each place, the Superior General will have an interview with each sister and then a meeting with the community.

Graciela, on this occasion, gives guidelines that help prepare for the personal interview. It will deal with “what I want to communicate or manifest to the Superior General on two specific topics:  

– How am I, how is my person as a Daughter of Jesus, how do I live my vocation at this moment in my life?

– What do I want in the Congregation, how do I feel about the Congregation?”

Graciela wants to focus the conversation, but”the most important thing is that together we open ourselves to the Spirit and that everything comes together as He disposes.”

Our Superior General has been forced to postpone canonical visits during her six-year term due to these almost two years of the pandemic. That is why she expresses with joy: “I am sure that on this occasion I will meet many sisters and that gives me great joy. They have no idea how much!”

She will visit Sevilla, Granada, Almeria, Galicia, Segovia, Salamanca (where she will participate in the closing of the Jubilee Year), Medina del Campo, Valladolid, and part of Madrid. From mid-February, she will continue her travels to the other communities and works of the Province.

We ask for Graciela and the sisters of this part of the Congregation the grace to welcome the Lord who comes in many ways into our lives, and now He does so.

Happy canonical visit, Graciela!

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