Brother Armin Luistro, Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, has appointed for the second time Brother Olavo José Dalvit as Visitor for the Brazil-Chile District. His mandate will run from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2026. The appointment was made official through a communication dated 19 August 2022.
Born on 13 March 1968 in the city of Sarandi/RS, Brother Olavo took his first vows on 21 January 1990 and his perpetual vows on 25 January 1998. Brother Olavo holds a degree in Religious Sciences and Philosophy and a Master’s degree in Administration. In his career as a De La Salle Brother, he has served as a teacher, coordinator of vocations and youth ministry, and also director of several schools.
The communities in which he has worked include: São Miguel do Oeste/SC, Sapucaia do Sul/RS, Esteio/RS, Porto Alegre/RS, Canoas/RS, Ceará/RS and Porto Alegre/RS and São Paulo/SP.
Before taking up his first mandate as Brother Visitor in 2019, Brother Olavo was District Bursar and responsible for the administration of the District.
De La Salle pedagogy arrived in Brazil in 1907, brought by a group of 12 Brothers of the Christian Schools who came to Brazil at the invitation of the Archdiocese of Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul. There the Brothers founded the first Lasallian educational communities and, after 30 years of hard work in the southern region, their mission expanded towards the centre of the country.
For some years now, the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools has been carrying out a process of restructuring of Districts throughout the world. Following this trend and in view of the current Lasallian reality in Latin America, the former Lasallian Districts of Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre and the Lasallian Delegation of Chile have been conducting a process over the last five years that led, on 1 January 2012, to the creation of the Lasallian Brazil-Chile District.
Currently, 129 Brothers and 27 Formatees live and work in the Lasallian District of Brazil-Chile. The District serves more than 54,000 students, accompanied by some 6,500 educators, in 46 educational communities.
These communities consist of 34 basic education institutions, 7 institutions of social assistance and 5 higher education institutions. In addition, it maintains 24 religious communities and 2 missionary communities in the north of the country. The units are distributed in nine states: Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo, as well as the Federal District.
In Mozambique, Africa, the District also sustains a special mission that assists more than 3,000 students in three Educational Communities, with the support of more than 100 educators.
Ilaria Iadeluca
Communications Office – Generalate (Rome)
We would like to thank the Communication Team of the District of Brazil-Chile for the valuable contribution.