New Oblate Superior General

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have elected a new Superior General:
US native 58 year-old Fr. Louis Lougen was elected on Tuesday by the 89 delegates from the worldwide order who are gathered here in Rome for their 35^th General Chapter.
He succeeds Father Wilhelm Steckling, and will lead more than 4,000 Oblates working in countries around the world.
Fr Lougen spoke to Philippa Hitchen about his order and about his personal experience of working with the poorest communities in the U.S. and Brazil…

“We are about 4,200 oblates in 67 countries on the five continents…one of our big challenges is the demographic changes…”

“We’re close to the poor, wherever you go we preach the Gospel to the poor and there’s a special closeness we have to them which is our charism….”

“I learned to be a priest in Brazil, I went as a deacon, I was ordained and then stayed until the end of 1996 ….a marvellous people of deep faith, very poor, I worked in the favelas and I worked with formation of young men...... we go to preach the gospel to the poor but the poor also teach us and evangelise us. I learned the joy of simplicity, the generosity of how people who have nothing will share. I saw their powerful deep forgiveness, their tremendous vitality against tremendous odds….”

Listen….