As of July 25, 2025, Sister Lucy Mhatara occupies the role of Secretary General of our Congregation. She succeeds Sister Inés Aguirre in this service, who carried it out with generosity and diligence for seven years, between 2018 and 2025.
The role of the Secretary General focuses on ensuring fluid communication and cohesion among communities, safeguarding the processes of government and ensuring institutional coherence in the normative and pastoral areas. She is part of the General Government Team, together with the General Administrator and the General Team.
To formalize his appointment, a celebration was held on July 16, the eve of the feast of Mount Carmel. The prayer was simple and meaningful.
During the celebration, meaningful symbols were used: a lighted lamp, flowers, and an image of St. Joaquina with paper and pencil, evoking the spirit of fidelity, memory and loving detail that characterizes this service. In a symbolic gesture, Inés gave Lucy the witness of the Secretariat through the lighted candle, a sign of the light that is transmitted and shared.
Short biography
Lucy Mhatara was born in Uttan, a coastal village near Mumbai, India, inhabited mostly by Catholic fishermen. Her first encounter with the Vedruna charism took place in her teens, when three Vedruna sisters came to the area to teach in the parish school. She recalls how, as a ninth grader, she first heard about Joaquina de Vedruna. “What attracted me most about them was their joy, their simplicity, their familiarity and their love,” she shares.
After finishing her secondary studies in 1975, Lucy wanted to join the Vedruna Sisters, but had to wait until she obtained the consent of her family. During those years, she began her university studies in Philosophy and History, while attending the aspirancy and prenovitiate.
A silent responsibility
After her first religious profession, she trained as a secondary school teacher, which enabled her to teach in various schools of the Congregation in Gujarat and Rajasthan: Pimpri, Meghraj, Merubaug and Simalwara. In addition to his teaching work, he also held management positions in some of these schools. For the last three years, she has been Provincial Secretary.
On the occasion of her appointment, we interviewed Sister Lucy to learn more about her history, her vocation and how she is living this new mission that she is now beginning. In her words, she recognizes with simplicity the seriousness of the assignment:
“I know what it involves and what it demands: concentration, energy, time, patience and, above all, prudence. I feel that the Congregation has placed its trust in me”.
While acknowledging the challenges, he also highlights what motivates him the most:
“It’s a silent service, at the end of the day you have nothing in your hands to show as an accomplishment. But it fulfills me to know that, without physically seeing the sisters or visiting the communities, you get to know them. It’s like touching the life and mission of the Congregation every day and loving them for who they really are.”
In tune with Saint Joaquina
Lucy feels a deep affinity with St. Joaquina also in this particular area of the charism:
“I admire St. Joaquina for her secretarial skills. She gave importance to every detail and put it in writing with ‘more and more love’. This service also consists of accuracy, fidelity and care for details, preserved with love, so that they are not lost in the memory of those who read.”
Message to the Vedruna Family
At the beginning of this new stage, Lucy addresses a few words to the entire Vedruna Family:
“In the written word we express so much of life and mission… we do it in order to leave it to future generations. And in this way, the Institute – the Work of God – can go forward”.
