This morning, Br. José Rodriguez Carballo has been reconfirmed as Minister General of the the Order of Friars Minor by the 152 representatives of the Order, gathered at St. Mary of the Angels, Assisi, for the 187th General Chapter.

The election rite was presided by the Delegate of the Holy Father, H. E. Card. José Saraiva Martins, who handed over the newly elected minister the seal of “all the Order of Friars Minor”.

Br. José Rodriguez Carballo will be 56 years old next August.
Minister General since 2003, he served the Order as: General Definitor and General Secretary for Formation and Studies; Minister Provincial of the Franciscan Province of Santiago de Compostela (Spain); President of the Union of Friars Minor in Europe and as Director of young religious in formation. His academic curriculum is also significant: after having received a Licence in Biblical Theology in Jerusalem and a Licence in Sacred Scripture in Rome, he taught these subjects in the major seminary in the Spanish city of Vigo and in the Theological Faculty of Santiago de Compostela.

Br. José Rodriguez Carballo is the 119th successor of Saint Francis. Till 2015 he will lead the 15,000 members of the Order of Friars Minor who live in 113 countries.

800 years since the Foundation of the Order, at the small chapel of the Portiuncola (birthplace of the Franciscan movement), the Friars Minor renew their missionary engagement, ready to meet today’s “new poor” and increase their commitment for evangelization, interreligious and intercultural dialogue and the promotion of peace.