Last July 19, the delegates of the 34th Provincial Chapter of St. Thomas of Villanova (Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Venezuela) named the new Prior Provincial in the person of Simon Puertas Perez (Granada, Spain, 1972). On the following day the four Provincial Councilors were elected, who will assist him in the responsibilities of the government of the Province. And on Saturday, the 21st, a message of the Chapter was made public addressed to all the religious and all the Augustinian Recollect Family: “to all our Sisters of the contemplative and active life; our Secular Fraternities; our Augustinian Recollect Youth; to all our collaborators in our ministries and to all those who enlarge more our Augustinian Recollect Family through their closeness and support”.
Besides thanking everyone for their collaboration, as manifested in the message, the Chapter makes known its resolutions and projects. It feels called to deepen the roots of faith and “to move forward through the path of human, spiritual, communitarian and pastoral revitalization. And it considers itself as what Jesus talks in the Gospel: “similar to a father of a family who takes out from its reserves that which is new and old” (Mt. 13, 52).
New and old
And it enumerates the new things and the old ones that it wants to recover. Among the old ones the first is the Word of God, which a religious should permanently exercise himself listening to it; thus he learns “the most important and indispensable among the lessons: to know the living Word who is Jesus Christ”.
Another old thing that the religious wants to take out of the old chest, refresh it and display it is “the witnessing presence and wisdom of our elders, disciplined, sacrificing, disposed to fulfill in his life the Word of the Lord”, to the point of giving his own life for Him. They are proud of these and feel encouraged “to live our present with a renewed commitment”.
And, among the new things, they choose first the new evangelization, this is “the effort for renewal which the Church is calling to do in order to be on the top of the challenges which the context of actual socio-cultural places on the Christian faith, its announcement and its testimony, in correspondence with the strong changes.
And, as other new thing, it also mentions the shared mission. The Chapter Fathers are clear: “we want to feel in communion with all those who live their faith in our ministries”. And they emphasize: “It is not only, “do with others”, but feel in communion with others”. They are conscious of the teaching of our Father St. Augustine: “In the school of our Lord we are fellow disciples” (Sermon 241,1). And they simply take out the consequence: “We wish to learn from the enormous wealth of knowledge and new experiences that God has communicated to men and women who share, in the spirit of discipleship, the desire of God to save the world”.
Until 2015
Simon Puertas Perez was born in Granada on the 4th of May 1972. He was a student of the College of St. Thomas of Villanova in Granada (Spain) before entering the Seminary of Fr. Urdaneta in Guadalajara. Between 1986 and 1990 he continued his formation in Monachil. After his novitiate in Burgos, he made his temporary profession on July 21, 1991. He continued his philosophical and theological studies in Burgos from 1991 to 1996. He was ordained deacon in Talavera de la Reina on June 29, 1996, and was ordained priest on June 28, 1997 in what was his school in Granada by Jose Luis Azcona, an Augustinian Recollect Bishop. On that same year he was assigned to the parish of St. Monica, in Madrid, to complete his theological studies and have his first pastoral experience.
In 1997 he was assigned to the Augustinian School in Guadalajara until 2001, dedicating himself during that time to educational apostolate. From 2002 to 2004 he was assigned to Portel, the mission in Marajo (Brazil). From 2004 to 2006 he was transferred to the community of Breves, also in Marajo. In 2006 he was named Provincial Secretary, ratified in the same office for the next three years. During the Provincial Chapter celebrated in July 2012 in Monachil, he was elected Prior Provincial for the next triennium 2012 – 2015.