(ANS – Rome) – During the Intermediate Plenary Session, the Rector Major with the agreement of the members of the General Council, appointed two new Provincials: Fr Leonardo Mancini, for the Salesian Circumscription of Central Italy (ICC) and Fr Béla Ábrahám, for the Province of Hungary (UNG).

Fr Mancini, was born on 19 February 2 1964 in Rome. After his novitiate at Lanuvio, he made his first profession on 8 September 1984 and his perpetual profession 22 April 1990. He was ordained priest on 12 October 1991. He was Rector of the “Pius XI” Centre in Rome between 2000 and 2006 and then of the Villa Sora Institute at Frascati between 2006 and 2011. Last July he became Director of Novices at Genzano Rome. He has been a Provincial Councillor for a number of years and a member of the Provincial Team for Schools and of CNOS/Schools.

He will be installed in September. Until then, according to the norms of the Constitutions,  Fr Antonello Sanna, Vice Provincial of ICC  will exercise the role of Superior.

Fr Béla Ábrahám was born 20 March  1968 in Budapest. After studying philosophy and theology at the diocesan seminary of Esztergom-Budapest, he was ordained priest on 15 June 1991. The same year, thanks to the collapse of the Communist regime and the opportunity for religious to return to their communities, he entered the Salesian novitiate at  Szombathely. He mace his first profession on 8 September 1992 and perpetual profession on 28 June 1998.

For a number of years he worked in the Salesian parishes in Budapest and was Rector, Director of Novices and then Economer in the house of Budapest-Óbuda. Since 2005 he has been Rector of the Salesian Retreat House at Péliföldszentkereszt and Vice Principal of the Salesian High School in Nyergesújfalu. Within the Province: between 1995 and 2000 he was responsible for Youth Ministry, giving it a special character in the post-communist era; between 2000 and 2006 he was a Provincial Councillor, between 2006 and 2009 Vice Provincial and  between  2006 and 2011 Provincial Economer.

He will be installed on Saturday 21 April 2012 in the Salesian house of Kazincbarcika.

Published 02/04/2012