Father General has appointed Fr. Roberto Del Riccio, SJ, 60 years old, as the next Provincial of the Euro-Mediterranean Province. This Province erected in 2017 includes Italy, Albania, Malta and the Mission of Romania. Fr. Del Riccio has worked since 2002 in Naples, mainly as professor of dogmatic theology and as Rector of the inter-regional seminary and other institutions of theological formation. He has also been President of the association “Laity and Jesuits for Naples”.

An interview with the new appointed EUM Provincial

As a true scout assistant, the conclusion could only be “good road to all”. Father Roberto Del Riccio, interviewed immediately after the news of his appointment as the next EUM Provincial, does not hide all the weight he feels falling on his shoulders today. “I feel a great sense of gratitude for the trust shown to me, but also a great sense of disorientation. I entrust myself to the Lord so that He can give me confidence in a future that I see as uncertain and unknown.

Who is a Jesuit? What, in the light of the charism, is the mission today?

I feel that the Jesuit is someone who is sent towards something he does not know, who often finds himself in a situation greater than himself, to which the Lord calls him, through the superiors to whom he has made a vow of obedience. In an availability as total as possible, which does not always correspond to the inner feeling, as I am experiencing. I am well acquainted with the activity of my work, but the critical points and strong points of the Euro-Mediterranean Province are all to be discovered; I know Companions, I know opinions, but I lack the general overview. For me this is a great novelty.

“Fratelli tutti”: what is the invitation and what is the response you feel it is urgent to offer as EUM?

The response I feel it is urgent to offer as a Province is that of witnessing and belonging to a Body, of being united members, brothers, first of all among ourselves, because only in this way can we be effectively able to help others to be ‘ all brothers ‘, as the Pope asks of us”.

How is the pandemic provoking the Society, internally and in its works?

In this situation I feel that the tam tam among us is concern for our elders, grief for those who have left us… and the unity that emerges consoles me greatly.

What desire do you come with for these years? What hope do you want to offer?

I bring the desire to be at the service of a body, to be able to make available the little that I have, in order to be able to unite the brothers who are part of this Province and so that the Euro-Mediterranean reality may be able to enter into a larger body, that of the universal Society to which we belong. May the Lord help me. “A good journey” to all!