For two years Fr. Aidan Rooney, C.M., has been the international coordinator of the Vincentian commission dedicated to providing information and training materials to the entire Vincentian Family in the world (.famvin), and has brilliantly carried out the stage of transformation and structuring of the commission, organizing the team of professionals and volunteers who take charge of publications in six languages, greatly improving the visibility and web presence of the entire Vincentian Family.
On July 1, Javier Fernández Chento, a Vincentian layman, will take over the post of coordinator.
Fr. Aidan R. Rooney, C.M.
The whole team of .famvin deeply thanks to Fr. Rooney his devoted work.
Fr. Aidan will continue to collaborate in .famvin, especially in the area of English language and fundraising, as well as taking on new responsibilities at Niagara University, a Vincentian institution in the United States.
We are also grateful for the availability of Javier F. Chento as he takes up the new tasks, and we look forward to continuing this task of informing the world and our Vincentian Family of what all Vincentians are doing around the globe.
Francisco Javier Fernández Chento
Francisco Javier Fernández Chento
Javier is a lay Vincentian from Spain, associate of the Congregation of the Mission, member of the Popular Missions team of the Congregation of the Mission canonical province of Zaragoza (Spain) for 30 years, a Vincentian ministry dedicated to evangelization and service to the impoverished, following the missionary style we inherited from St. Vincent de Paul. In addition to much of the Spanish geography, he has participated in missions in Honduras, Bolivia, the United States, El Salvador, etc.
He is a graduate of the Oberta University of Catalonia, in four disciplines (Assistant Management, Administrative Management, Human Resources and Risk Prevention, and Advanced Accounting). He is bilingual Spanish/English.
He manages and maintains several Christian and Vincentian web pages, including “The Vincentian Formation Network” (“We Are Vincentians”), which he founded in 2007 along with Fr. Mitxel Olabuénaga, C.M., as an online platform to offer Vincentian formation to all members of the Vincentian Family in the world. Currently articles are published in six languages.
He also collaborates with the Vincentian Family Office (whose offices are in Philadelphia, USA), as a consultant on formation topics. He has been — and will continue this task — coordinator of the Spanish area at .famvin.
He is also a Catholic singer and songwriter, and has published several albums. In 1997 he founded, along with a friend, Alfredo Arambillet (recently deceased), the label Trovador, a well-known Christian record company in Spain.
He collaborates closely with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Spain, for which he has translated and edited several books, including one by its International President, Renato Lima de Oliveira. He is a scholar of Frederic Ozanam, a lay Vincentian who lived in 19th century in France, and one of the most vivid examples of how to concretize the Vincentian charism in our day, from the secular state. Javier is the Spanish-language editor of Frederic’s work, which began with Fr. Jaime Corera, CM, in 2010 and is still ongoing: he is still working on the edition of Ozanam’s complete correspondence which, published in four volumes, will complete its publication in late 2017. In addition, he is preparing for September 2017 a new edition of a biography of Frederic Ozanam, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his beatification.
Javier has been president and member of several non-profit associations, including Feyda, a Vincentian association founded in Spain. For most of his life he has worked in the Third (non-profit) Sector.
He currently works in Information Technology, offering consulting and hosting services, Web design and maintenance, as well as advice, training and IT solutions, document management and digitization of texts, editing, layout and publication of books, etc.
Mil gracias al Padre Aidan. Que le vaya bien todo en la nueva responsabilidad. Estoy seguro que encontrará en Niagara a las personas a quienes se entregaron especialmente san Vicente de Paúl, santa Luisa de Marillac y los demás santos y santas, bienaventurados y bienaventuradas, venerables siervos y siervas de Dios de la Familia Vicentina. No me he olvidado todavía del apoyo que el Padre Aidan expresó hace más de veinte años cuando un breve comentario mío que había compartido con familiares vicencianos le resultó un poco controvertido a in cohermano. Atesoro las preciosas palabras sobre el buen Padre Aidan pronunciadas en aquellos tiempos por los labios del buen Padre Fred Gaulin (qepd).
Y, ¡felicidades, Javier! Ya sabes que te agradezco muchísimo toda la atención, ayuda y amistad que me has prestado o dado. Te deseo lo mejor en tu nuevo cargo. Seguramente es feliz el estimable e inolvidado Padre Jaime V. Corera Andía al enterarse de tu «ascenso»
¡Paz y bien!
«estimable» arriba se debe leer «estimado».