Tomaž Mavrič, CM – Twenty-fifth Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and the Company of the Daughters of Charity.

Father Tomaž was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 9, 1959. His mother, Leopoldina, and his father, Joze, were born in Slovenia in 1932. They left the country, which at that time was Yugoslavia, in May 1945, when the Communist regime came to power, fleeing to a refugee camp in Austria and then, in 1948, they left with their families on a ship to Argentina. They married in 1957. They had five children, two girls and three boys. Father Tomaž’s father died in 1989 and his mother continues to live in the south of Argentina in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche. His brothers and sisters live with their families, as follows: Monika in the USA, Alenka and Marjan in Argentina, and Martin in Brazil.

Father Tomaž attended primary and secondary school in Buenos Aires. For the last three years of primary school and all of his time in secondary school, Father Tomaž attended a school founded and run by the Vincentians in Remedios de Escalada, Province of Buenos Aires. During those years, he stayed in a boarding school, which was located next to the school he attended every day, also run by the Slovenian Vincentian Fathers, which has produced a number of priests and lay missionaries. After high school, he joined the CMs in Slovenia. He made his Internal Seminary in Belgrade, Serbia and entered the seminary in 1977. Father Tomaž was ordained to the priesthood on 29 June 1983 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

During his ministerial life, Father Tomaž has served in many diverse ministries of the CM internationally: Canada, Slovenia, Slovakia, Russia, Ireland, and Ukraine. He has been assistant pastor, vocation promoter, formator, counselor, retreat director, and he has given parish missions. Father Tomaž also has the experience of working with the poor in Russia. Since 2009, he has been the Vice-Visitor of the Vice-Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius. He was part of the commission that put together the new Ratio Formationis of the CM. Father Tomaž speaks Russian, Spanish, English, and Slovenian. Father Tomaž’s exposure to diversity and multicultural ways of life is going to be a blessing for the ongoing internationalization of our very multicultural Congregation.

These are some thoughts from our new Superior General:

Years ago, our confrere Father Toscani, CM, started to develop the idea, which was later further developed by Father Hugh O’Donnell, CM, of Vincent de Paul as a “Mystic of Charity.” It was Father Karl Rahner, SJ, who, at the end of the 20^th century, expressed the following thought: Christians in the 21^st century are going to be mystics or they will cease to exist. What a beautiful invitation for us who try to live the charism that Vincent de Paul left, to keep discovering, developing, and deepening Vincent’s way: being a “Mystic of Charity.”

The Vincentian Family is a gift from God. It is here to keep nurturing us, to keep us growing, and to keep deepening our mission together in the service of the poor. We have just finished the “Year of Collaboration” within the Vincentian Family. It was a year filled with blessings! We got to know each other better, we discovered new gifts within our members and branches, and deepened our own closeness with Jesus, through Mary and the many blessed and saints of the Vincentian Family to better understand and serve the poor. It is with great hope that we can look to the future. May Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal intercede and guide us on the road and may Providence continue to lead us.