At the Conference of Religious Men and Women of Brazil (CRB) held in September 2024, our Sister Veronica Terezinha Hergesell was elected coordinator of the Palmas Tocantins Region. This meeting brought together members of various congregations for the renewal of their commitment to consecrated life and the evangelizing mission in the country, and marked the beginning of a three-year period of coordination for our Sister.
Veronica assumes the task together with her inter-congregational team, composed of Sisters Marizete Queiroz de Souza, from the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament; Maria de Jesus Ferreira da Silva, from the Dominicans of Our Lady of the Rosary of Monteils; and Anair Maria Loro from Our Lady.
As is customary in Brazil, after the assemblies of the 20 regional centers of the CRB, a formation meeting was held to update the elected coordinators on the reality of the national conference. Sister Veronica attended that meeting, during October 14, 15 and 16, where she was able to prepare the mission she will undertake over the next few years with her team.
Being the regional coordinator of the Brazilian Conference of Religious Men and Women implies:
- To animate the consecrated religious life in the region of Palmas, Tocantins.
- To accompany and help energize the consecrated religious life carried out in the 8 regional centers.
- Visiting religious communities in the region. Currently, there are 225 religious in a total of 52 communities of 62 different congregations.
- To be a presence of hope and prophecy.
The Palmas Tocantins Region, founded in 1996, has had from the beginning a spirit of solidarity in welcoming and supporting all communities, especially those in difficulty. This character is maintained today, and is expressed in the objectives set by the regional team for the next three years:
- Articulate and strengthen the 8 centers of the Conference of Religious of Brazil in Tocantins.
- Visit all communities.
- Motivate ongoing formation, organizing online meetings every two months, with content recommended by the religious.
- Accompany the inter-congregational community living alongside the indigenous people of the Xerente Tribe.
- To provoke the RCRC to reflect and live in a dimension of synodality within the Congregations and the Church.
It is joyful news that the Vedruna charism can permeate the reality of the Palmas Tocantins region through our sister Veronica, who proposes to animate the consecrated religious life, in the dimension of mysticism, prophecy and hope. Also in her help to the ongoing formation of religious, reflection and joint search for sustainability. The spirit of St. Joaquina will be present in the impulse of consecrated religious life to become more involved in the world of poverty, human frontiers, indigenous peoples and other cries of this great Amazon; as well as in offering opportunities for religious to live with joy their commitment to the service of the Kingdom.
