The New Secretary
Francisco Javier Tello was born 41 years ago in Cáceres, Spain. He entered Saint Thomas of Villanova Minor Seminary in Salamanca and continued his initial formation in the Province of Saint Joseph in Logroño, Monteagudo, and once again in Salamanca. He professed his vows as an Augustinian Recollect in 1991 and made his final commitment to the Order in 1996, after completing his philosophical and theological studies at the Saint Stephen Faculty in Salamanca.
He was ordained a priest on May 22, 1999, and, after serving for a year on the formation team at Saint Thomas of Villanova Minor Seminary, was sent to Madrid to pursue advanced studies in catechetics at the Saint Pius X Institute at the Pontifical University of Salamanca in Madrid.
In November 2000 he was transferred to Venezuela and dedicated himself to the ministry of education at Cristo Rey School, one of the three schools administered by Saint Joseph Province in Caracas. During the triennium 2003-2006 he served as councilor for the Vicariate of Venezuela, and then, in the following triennium, was master of postulants at Our Lady of Good Counsel Seminary in Palmira, Táchira. Since 2011, he has been Vicar Provincial, major superior of the 38 religious in the 8 communities of Saint Joseph Province in Venezuela.
The General Secretary
The new General Councilor and Secretary In addition to his duties as General Councilor, the office of General Secretary that Francisco Javier Tello now assumes is key to the efficient and effective functioning of the Order’s general administration. The General Secretary’s office is the neurological center of the coordination of the order, operating in communication with the eight provincial secretaries. The General Secretary receives all the information arriving from throughout the Recollect world and transmits it to all sectors of the Order, as well as to the Holy See and to other entities outside the Order. Among other duties, the General Secretary is responsible for preparing the meetings of the General Council, writing and authorizing official documents, representing the Order as its notary, being in charge of the general curia files, and setting up and coordinating computer services.
In all of these areas, the outgoing secretary, Guadalupe Sergio Camarena Lara, has dedicated himself most effectively since late in the year 2010. Among his other accomplishments, we must emphasize his initiating and programming a general data base for the whole Order. The data base was prepared in the Provincial Curia of Bogotá (Colombia) and is already in operation. Tello Vegas takes up and continues Sergio’s efforts, determined to contribute the greatest service possible to the service of revitalization that moves forward in the Order.