An Argentine is the successor of San Francisco de Asís in the Catholic structure

As part of its ordinary general chapter, the Conventual Friars Minor elected the Argentine Fray General Minister Carlos Alberto Trovarelli, who thus becomes the 120th successor of San Francisco de Asís.

Fray Carlos was elected in the third election on Saturday, the second day of the chapter. After accepting the appointment and confiding in the Lord and the brothers, he went with his capitulants to the tomb of St. Francis singing the Te Deum. In front of the remains of the Saint of Assisi, he published his profession of faith and swore obedience "to the Pope and the Holy Church", following which was lived one of the most moving moments of the day, with the embrace each one's blessing with the relics of the Assisi poverello. "It is an honor to be the successor of San Francisco and the father of a great fraternity, and I have asked the Saint of Assisi for the help of his spirit. parents to work and reflect together, to always look at the Gospel and how Saint Francis lived the gospel, "he said in one of his first statements.

Fray Carlos was born on June 21, 1962 in Cinco Saltos, Rio Negro. After studying industrial engineering for three years, he entered the post in February 1984 in La Reja, Moreno, where he became a trainer. After his novitiate in Fray Bentos, Uruguay, he made his temporary profession in 1986. He made his perpetual profession in 1990 and was ordained a priest in 1995.

In Argentina, he studied philosophy and theology at the Center for Studies in Philosophy and Theology, at the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel and at the Diocesan Seminary in Morón. A graduate in theology, he obtained a bachelor's degree in theology with a specialization in pastoral liturgy, delivered by the Institute of Pastoral Liturgy of Padua.

As part of his work for the Franciscans, he served in Argentina and Uruguay, where he was a novice master and provincial definitor. Already in Buenos Aires, he has been provincial minister twice, until 2015.

Since 2015, he was Assistant General of the Government of the Order of the Latin American Conventual Federation, which includes provinces, custodians and delegations covering Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

This is the first time that an Argentinian has been elected head of the Order who, in the province of Rioplatense of San Antonio de Padua, where he comes from and which includes Uruguay and Argentina, does a job important in parishes, schools and missionary zone homes, both in urban and rural areas, accompanying educational, training and social activities.

The joy of the appointment of Fray Carlos joins that of the recent beatification of his first blessed born in these lands, Carlos de Dios Murias, one of the martyrs of La Rioja.