Between October 2025 and January 2026, Sisters Maria Irizar and Fatima Borges will make the visit of the General Team to various countries of the Province of Vedrun America.
This is the first chronicle of their visit, between November 5 and 16, 2025, during which they shared with the Vedruna communities of Chile: Constitución and Puente Alto.
We left the General House in Rome on November 5, mid-afternoon. We flew via Madrid to Santiago de Chile. It was a very long trip, especially the second flight, but since it was at night we were able to rest well. The trip helped us to prepare our hearts with illusion and joy for the meeting with the Vedruna Family of Vedrun America.
Sister Flor Maria Garrido, Delegate of Chile, was waiting for us at the Santiago airport. She was accompanied by Marcelo, a friend and collaborator who drove us in his car to the house in Puente Alto, a town in the Santiago metropolitan area.
Puente Alto Community
At the Central House, the sisters welcomed us with great joy when we arrived from Santiago. Afterwards we had a drink and got to know the schedule and spaces of the house. We were delighted to learn that the snack time, at five o’clock, is called “eleven o’clock” here, for a funny reason!
We visited the Santa Joaquina de Vedruna School, which is next to the House, with the good fortune of visiting the Science Fair in the sports center, prepared and organized by the students who, with enormous creativity and ingenuity, as well as scientific rigor, exhibited topics and subjects from all scientific disciplines. What creativity and knowledge together!
On Saturday 8, early in the morning, the Vedruna Laity of the country were already in Puente Alto for their Annual National Assembly. There were 38 people, coming from the lay communities of: Constitución, Padre las Casas and Melipilla. With them and the sisters of the house we shared the Eucharist at noon, celebrated in the chapel of the College; we enjoyed greeting them, sharing with them and praying together. Later that night, we participated in the festive event organized by the Laity, full of creativity, joy and gratitude expressed by meeting every year to strengthen ties and deepen the Vedruna charism. Particularly, there was much affection and union in the moment of celebrating “the secret friend”. We liked it very much because it was very creative and personalized, as each one prepared a handmade card for his or her friend.
Constitution
On Sunday, the 9th, after the Eucharist in the Santa Joaquina Chapel, near the Casa, in which the Laity also participated, we traveled with Flor Mª by bus from Santiago to Constitución. It was very interesting to travel from the high floor of the bus, with a panoramic view that allowed us to contemplate and discover something of this great country, its agriculture, its nature, always accompanied by the Andean mountain range that crosses it from north to south.
Towards mid-afternoon we arrived in Constitución, located in Cerro Alto. We met the three sisters of our community who reside there: Carmen Gloria, Carmen and Maggie. With them we were able to enjoy many moments of prayer, conversation and sharing.
We were able to visit the Santa Rosa School, dedicated only to girls, which offers education from kindergarten to the last year of elementary school. This is also due to the fact that the earthquake destroyed a good part of the school and it was only possible to build part of it, so it could not be mixed because of the facilities required, for which there is not enough space. We shared a coffee with the staff and participated in the prayer, dedicated to Mary in the month of prayer dedicated to her -which here is November-. We were offered words of welcome, with much affection, and also a dance. Afterwards we stayed there talking animatedly with the eighth and last year students who are in the school, and we visited their class; they say goodbye to the school already in December, and leave as their motto: “we are leaving, but we leave traces”. How nice!
We also met with the Vedruna lay group at the school. First we celebrated a shared prayer in the chapel and then “eleven o’clock” in the staff room. It was a very nice time to get to know each other better, to share informally and to dream together about the future with hope.
San José de Puente Alto Community
After the days spent in Constitución, on Wednesday the 12th we returned by bus to Santiago, where Sister María Isabel, coordinator of the community of San José de Puente Alto, took us with Marcelo to the Central House again.
There we had several activities and events. On Thursday and Friday we shared with the community. The sisters, although they are very old and have plenty of ailments and illnesses, are very active and connected to reality, they are prayerful women and there is a family atmosphere that enveloped us from the first day we arrived.
The community meeting was an opportunity to share in depth and to get to know each other better and to rekindle the desire to be born again based on two of the keys offered to us by the Chapter document: shared leadership and synodality. We prayed and shared about our family, our community and province, our dreams; all in a serene and peaceful atmosphere.
On Sunday, December 16, we witnessed a very important day for the country, as the presidential elections were held. A second round will be necessary in December, to choose between the two most voted candidates, who represent totally different approaches. The day passed with normality and peace, similar to that which is breathed in the country, which desires peace, prosperity and place for all. We join in the noble wishes of the Chilean people.
It has caught our attention…
The day after our arrival in Puente Alto, we went with Sister Flor Mª to the weekly market, which is called “fair” here, and we were especially delighted to see all the seasonal fruits and vegetables: strawberries, cherries, mangos, avocados… as we come from the northern hemisphere in autumn, we were very pleased to find so much variety, so much richness and everything so well placed and ordered, besides the fact that the fruit has an extraordinary flavor!
We had the opportunity to discover the beauty of Constitución’s nature . On the 10th we took a walk through the city. We walked down with Carmen Gloria from the Cerro Alto and reached the Maule River along its left bank, walking to almost its mouth, where we could see what is called “La Barra”, the point where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. It is impressive and beautiful. With the explanations of Carmen Gloria, we were able to get an idea of how nature changed as a result of the earthquake of 2010, and the subsequent tsunami, which in addition to the deaths it caused, destroyed much of the lower city, and whose consequences can still be seen.
The earthquake, the tsunami and everything that affected the city is still very much alive, as usual, among the people of Constitución. It is a city of about 50,000 inhabitants, whose economy is mainly based on the timber industry, which includes a pulp mill. Most of the people live around everything involved in the timber industry, from growing pine trees to transporting the wood to the mill. Fishing is mostly artisanal, because there is no port with sufficient anchorage capacity.
On the 11th, we went by car with Maggie and Carmen Becerra to see the sea and some particularly beautiful places, with rocks of spectacular shapes, such as “La Iglesia”, “El Elefante”, and the old artisanal fishing port, today with little activity. It was a splendid day, which made the walk even more impressive. To see the sunset, we went to Cerro Mutrún, from where you can see the whole city, the sea and the mouth of the river. There is a small chapel of the Virgin, where we prayed for a while before returning home for dinner.
This is the first chronicle of this visit. The following ones will be available soon.
