On the morning of Monday, November 15, 2021, the one hundred sixteen Daughters of Charity, gathered as delegates to the General Assembly that is being held at their Motherhouse on the rue du Bac, have elected their new General Council. On last Monday the 8th, they elected their new Superior General, Sister Françoise Petit. Today, they have elected the eight Daughters of Charity who will form the new General Council (serving in their position for a period of six years). These are the names, the nationalities and Provinces of the elect: Sister Alicia Margarita Cortés Cazares, Mexican, Province of Mexico; Sister Ana Amelia Cunha, Brazilian, Fortaleza Province; Sister Hanna Cybula, Polish Province; Sister Theresa Eke, Nigerian, Province of Nigeria; Sister Luisa Farri, Province of Italy; Sister Antonia González Granado, Province of Madrid-Saint Louise, Sister Julie Kubasak, Province of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton; Sister Anna Soepraptiwi, Indonesia, Province of Indonesia.

The General Councilors – and therefore the General Council – has existed since the beginning of the Company of the Daughters of Charity. The first Rule of the Company, written in 1645, already speaks of four “officers” (the word “officers” would later be replaced with the word “councilors”). In June 1646, Saint Vincent de Paul spoke to the Sisters and stated: My dear Sisters, the establishment of this little Council is a beginning of the order and foundation Providence is laying in your Company (CCD:XIIIb:240).

The current Constitutions, in article #68, state: The General Councilors, whose number is never less than four, form the Council of the Superioress General. They assist her in the government of the Company, in fidelity to the Constitutions and Statutes.

Thus, we ask the Spirit of the Lord to grant the necessary gifts to the new General Councilors so that they may guide the Company of the Daughters of Charity along the paths that Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac intuited.

Celestino Fernández, CM