On May 4-8, 2026, the second session of the 26th Provincial Chapter of the Province "Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament" was held at the Hermitage of Lecceto di Malmantile (FI), with the presence of 22 religious, the general consultor Fr. José Antonio and the "facilitators" (the Frassineti couple) who also accompanied us throughout most of this session.
The session opened on the morning of Monday, May 4 with the greeting of Fr. Provincial and the intervention of Fr. José Antonio who, on behalf of Fr. General, communicated the names of the three religious who could be voted for in the election of the Provincial Superior. After the approval of the agenda and the Chapter tasks, the morning continued with the second part of the Provincial Treasurer’s report and with the dialogue in the assembly on this topic.
In the afternoon, work began in view of elaborating the final document of the Chapter, starting from the text in which the fruit of the work of the first session had been collected around 6 major themes:
- the meaning of redesign,
- the criteria of redesign,
- charism,
- fraternity,
- laity,
- operational choices.
Divided into 3 groups, each of which worked on 2 themes, by trying to formulate for each theme: instances, guidelines and proposals. The reflections sent to the Chapter by some of the lay people who had participated in the first session were also much appreciated.
Throughout the morning and early afternoon of Tuesday 5 May, each group worked on the 4 themes dealt with by the other groups and amended their texts with additions, deletions, reformulations. As the afternoon progressed, voting began - item by item - on the amended texts, in order to reach a final text that was as widely agreed upon as possible by everyone present.
Voting continued on Wednesday 6 May, in the morning and early afternoon, when the "delicate" issue of taking operational decisions was addressed. This concerns above all where we are present in the Province: those places on which to focus and those to evaluate in view of eventually relaunching them, with the aim of continuing to make our charism shine so that the Eucharist can be a force for the renewal of the Church and society.
During the group work, the need emerged to place a biblical icon at the foundation of the "redesign" of our Province, also to reaffirm that all this is not only the result of our effort but is first and foremost a gift from the Lord. The focus was on the icon of the vine and the branches (Jn 15:1-8) in which Jesus presents himself as the true vine that calls us to remain united to him, because only in this way will we be able to bear much fruit. Late on Wednesday afternoon overall approval was given to the text, comprising about thirty numbers, which were then entrusted to an editorial group to produce the final draft.
Thursday, May 7 was elect-ion day. It began with the election of the Provincial, which saw the confirmation of Fr. Gabriele Di Nicolò. Then, after the approval of the Treasurer’s report and the information on the changes made to the General Statutes, the election of the Consultors began in the second part of the morning and continued in the afternoon. The following were elected: Fr. Vittore Boccardi, Fr. Maurizio Zorzi, Fr. Fiorenzo Salvi, Fr. Domenico Avogadro. Fr. Matteo Magri was confirmed as Provincial Consultor and Treasurer. Finally, the Delegate to the General Chapter and his Substitute were elected: Fr. Luca Zanchi and Fr. Vittore Boccardi were elected respectively. After the final formalities, in the late afternoon of Thursday Fr. Provincial declared the work of the Chapter closed.
On Friday, May 8, early in the morning, the concluding Eucharist was celebrated, presided over by Fr. Provincial together with his Council; during this Fr. Gabriele made the profession of faith and took the oath of entry into office. After the celebration, the capitulars left Malmantile to return to their communities. As for the Vicar of the Provincial, Fr. Gabriel chose Fr. Vittore Boccardi, whose name was communicated to the Province shortly after the closing of the Chapter.
Father Flavio Fumagalli, sss
