New President of the Union of Superiors General (USG)

Fr José Rodríguez Carballo, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, was elected the new President of the Union of Superiors General (USG) – which will have its new legal headquarters in the Vatican – at the end of the work of the 80th six-monthly General Assembly that was held from 21 to 23 November in Rome. The Spanish religious succeeds Fr Pascual Chávez Villanueva, Rector Major of the Salesians, who has been President of the Union for the past six years.

The new President, in his brief greeting to the assembly after his election, mentioned in particular the aims which in his opinion consecrated life should strive for today: to let oneself be evangelized  to be able, in turn,  to evangelize, to seek God first of all, to be with the poor, to take seriously today's challenges that come from ecology, from the defence of human rights, and from justice and peace.

 Rodríguez Carballo, born in Lodoselo, Galizia, on 11 August 1953 has been Minister General of the Friars Minor since 2003. In 2009, the General Chapter which gathered at St Mary of the Angels in Assisi, reconfirmed him at the helm of the Order until 2015, as the 119th successor of St Francis. The religious is also a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.