Sodalitium announces the creation of the Chilean Region

Santiago, Chile, 06/23/14 (Sodalit News – Chile) The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae announced the soon-to-be creation of the Chilean Region, designating Rafael Ismodes Cascón as its Regional Superior. It also announced the changes of the superiors of Peru and Brazil.

Present since 1999 in the capital of Chile, and with the growth of the mission in this country, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae announced the creation of a region, a jurisdiction that will united the communities of Chile. Currently the apostolate of the Sodalit Family has extended to educational, solidarity and cultural projects all the way from Santiago to Puerto Montt. The Christian Life Movement also accompanies diverse services and associations of the youth, adults and families.

The new Regional Superior is Rafael Ismodes Cascón, Peruvian, son of Aníbal Ismodes Cairo – a professor who was recognized as Amauta (which means master or wise in quechua) for his career in education – and of a Spanish mother. He finished his studies in Philosophy in the Pontifical and Civil Faculty of Theology in Lima. He helped in the initial formation in the Formation Center Our Lady of Guadalupe, was the local superior of Sodalit communities in Lima and in San José, Costa Rica, and since 2011 served as the Regional Superior of Peru. He will be succeeded in this role by Fernando Vidal Castellanos.

“I feel very much like the experience of our Mother who goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth and takes the Good News to her” expressed Ismodes. “It’s crossing the Andes in order to share the Good News with my brothers and in the life of the Church in Chile. I experience myself being invited by the Lord to open my heart to give more fruits. That the heart may expand!” Speaking of the challanges of the Sodalitium in Chile, he highlighted that it is possible to offer a proposal of reconciliation to the modern society, an aspect that is in the very roots of the evangelizing proposal of the Sodalitium.

Other appointments in Brazil

The change of Alexandre Borges de Magalhães, who up until now had been serving as the Regional Superior of Brazil, was also announced, and he has been named the General Coordinator of the Christian Life Movement.

Borges will be replaced by Julio Egrejas, Brazilian who completed his studies in Theology in the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome where he studied his Masters in Canon Law, and who currently lives in Petrópolis, a city in which the Sodalitium has been present since 1990. The new regional superior has also been a formator in the Formation Center Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lima and a local superior in Petrópolis, Brazil.

Being appointed, Egrejas manifested a “profound sense of responsibility and humility, thanking God for offering him a path to holiness and service”, asking for the prayers of all the brothers for this new mission. Addressing the Sodalit Family, he called for “unity in the mission that God entrusts to us, an ardent sense of apostolate, and faithfulness to the Sodali charism in the Brazilian culture and land. My responsibility – he said – is to help everyone to feel a part of the mission and truly be a part of it, from each one’s state and condition”.

The regional superiors in the Sodalitium are higher superiors who work for the growth in the Christian life of the Sodalits in their region, animating and promoting the participation of everyone in the common mission. Ordinarily they are the ones who represent the Sodalitium before the relevant ecclesiastical authorities.