GA 2025 - Final letter to the pradotians

Dear Pradosian Brothers :

It is with great joy and hope that we would like to share with you what we experienced in Limonest (Lyon) during the celebration of the General Assembly of our institute. Six years have passed since the 2019 General Assembly. Six years of work and fidelity to our Pradosian vocation and to our local churches.

Once again, we met at the General Meeting convened by General Manager Armando Pasqualotto and his Council from Tuesday 1 July to Tuesday 15 July, on the theme of "Since the Spirit gives us life, let yourself be led by the Spirit"(Gal 5:25). We thank God for the services they have rendered over the years and for their work in proclaiming the Gospel to the poor.

There were sixty of us from 20 countries, representing the whole of the Institute worldwide. From the very first day, an atmosphere of prayer, fraternity and listening to what the Holy Spirit might suggest to us at this historic moment for our Prado, our churches and our world marked by poverty, war, abuse, lack of meaning, secularisation, interculturality, listening to the cry of the earth and many challenges presented itself to us.

We have been able to listen to and challenge each other in a synodal spirit, always seeking the best way to live as Pradosians under the guidance of Blessed Antoine Chevrier. "To know Jesus Christ and to make him known is everything" (VD 113, 225, 103; cf. Letters 105, 129), is always our first task. It conditions everything we live and do (cf. Phil 3:8-11).

While it is true that the first task of our assembly is the election of the Responsible General and his council, we are not neglecting the knowledge of our life as priests and lay consecrated people of Prado in the world or the various challenges that await us over the next six years.

With this in mind, guided by prayer, the study of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, we have elected Diego Martín Peñas as our General Manager who, together with his assistants and the General Council, will guide us over the coming years.

The Lord Jesus promised, before he went to the right hand of the Father, that he would never leave us alone and that the Spirit of truth who would send us would teach us little by little to know the whole truth and the things to come (cf. Jn 14:26; 16:13). It was in this spirit of truth that a celebration of "spiritual reparation" for abuses of authority, power and sexual aggression concluded a long period of work on this subject.

To define the recommendations to be taken into account in the coming years, we have formed six working groups on the Economy of our Institute; Collaboration between the different continents; the need to make the Prado charism known (Vocations Ministry); Formation of priests and formators (first formation, seminary); Formation of missionary disciples (lay people, catechists, etc.); Communication; and Updating the Prado charism in the face of new challenges and, finally, the spiritual family (Chemin d'Alliance, Limonest).

Listening to and getting to know the whole Prado Spiritual Family (Prado priests and consecrated lay people; the Prado Feminine Institute, Prado Sisters, Lay Associates, Deacons and their spouses and "Prado Education" in France), whose presentation aroused a great deal of interest before the celebration of the Eucharist in the presence of the Archbishop of Lyon, Mgr Olivier de Germay.

An Assembly cannot solve everything, just as a Prado Council cannot manage everything without the help of the rest of the pradosians. This is the great task of the six years ahead of us.

Diego Martín Peñas and the Annual General Meeting