Father General Arturo Sosa has appointed in March a new provincial in Spain and in the French-speaking Western European Province.

Spain.

Fr Enric Puiggròs Llavinés SJ will be the new Provincial of Spain of the Society of Jesus. The appointment, will take effect at the end of this academic year, between June and July. He will replace Fr Antonio España SJ, who has held this position since July 2017.

Enric Puiggròs was born in Barcelona in 1974 and after attending EGB, BUP and COU at the Colegio Sant Ignasi de Sarrià, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Zaragoza in 1993. He later studied Contemporary History at the University of Barcelona and did his teaching at the Claver School in Raimat (Lleida). He studied Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Catalonia and at the Institute of Fundamental Theology in Sant Cugat del Vallès, where he did a degree in Fundamental Theology on Ignatian Pedagogy.

He was ordained a priest in 2006 and, after completing his studies in 2007, he joined the mission of the Society of Jesus. Between 2007 and 2011 he was assigned to the Professional Technical School of El Clot (Barcelona). His training was completed with the third probation, which he did in Cape Coast (Ghana) between January and June 2012. That same year he spent a few months working with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Yei (South Sudan).

On his return, he was appointed consultant for the Tarragona Province, and began working as vocations promoter for the Province of Spain, a position he held for eight years, combining it first with the pastoral direction of the Jesuit Education Foundation and then, stationed in Madrid since 2017, with the coordination of the pre-novitiate team of the Province of Spain.

In 2014, when the Jesuit provinces were united into one, he became the consultor of the Province of Spain, a responsibility he has held until now. In 2020, the Provincial appointed him Delegate of the Apostolic Platform of the Society of Jesus in Catalonia, a position he has held for the last two years.

His artistic facet is well known, with a special sensitivity to pastoral work through music, which has led him to participate in various Christian music groups and to initiate musical production projects. Perhaps the best known of these at present is the group Jesuitas Acústico.

In the Provincial Congregation, in February 2022, Enric Puiggròs was elected Procurator, so he will participate in the next Congregation of Procurators of the Society of Jesus, which will take place in Loyola from 15 May and brings together representatives of all the provinces and regions of the Society of Jesus in the world.

Jesuitas España

New Provincial of EOF

Father General has appointed Fr. Thierry Dobbelstein as the next Provincial Superior of the Jesuits of French-speaking Western Europe. This Province includes France, the Walloon Region of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Greece, Mauritius and Réunion. Thierry Dobbelstein will succeed Fr François Boëdec and will take office on 31 July 2023, the feast of St Ignatius. "Thierry Dobbelstein knows the Province well thanks to the position of socius which he held until recently. His many qualities will help him to fulfil his mission as Provincial with fidelity, courage and spiritual sense," explained Fr Arturo Sosa sj on the occasion of this appointment.

Thierry Dobbelstein was born on 22 May 1968, in Eupen, Belgium. As a student at the Collège Saint-François-Xavier in Verviers (in eastern Wallonia), he met the Jesuits and got to know Ignatian spirituality through CLC-Youth groups. He entered the novitiate in 1988. He then went on to study physics (which he had started before joining the Society) Philosophy in Namur and Paris, two years of Regency as a teacher in Liege, and theology in Frankfurt and Brussels. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2000.

He dedicated fifteen years to teaching and youth ministry in Liege and was superior of the community between 2010 and 2016. In 2016, he was appointed Socius of the Provincial of the Jesuits of Southern Belgium and Luxembourg and, in this capacity, participated in the creation of the French-speaking Western European Province. In 2017, he became Socius to the current Provincial, François Boëdec. In 2022, he returned to his native country to coordinate the Jesuit educational institutions of French-speaking Belgium in Namur.

Jésuites EOF