On December 8, 2021, the new General Archivist, Friar Domenico CASTIGLIONE, a member of the Province of St. Agatha and St. Lucy in Italy (Sicily), will officially begin service. Friar Domenico will succeed Friar Lauro Diogo APOLINÁRIO, who after almost nine years of service in the General Archives, will be returning to his Province of St. Francis in Brazil.

The Minister General, Friar Carlos TROVARELLI, accepted the request from the new government of the Province of St. Francis in Brazil, which asked that Friar Lauro return. Thus, another friar was needed to take the place of Friar Lauro. Therefore, during the last session of the General Definitory, on November 5, 2021, a new General Archivist was appointed, namely, Friar Domenico CASTIGLIONE.
With the Feast of the Immaculate Conception approaching, the friars dedicated the last month to making this transition. Friar Lauro gave Friar Domenico the keys to the mysteries of the General Archive and explained how not to get lost in the labyrinth of corridors, folders, and files, which guard the history of our Order, Provinces, Friaries and individual friars.
Friar Domenico is well-qualified to carry out his new service. In 2004-5, he attended the annual Archival Course offered at the Vatican School of Paleography, Diplomatics and Archives where he earned a diploma. He was in charge of the Provincial archives of his Province. From October 1, 2009, to October 1, 2019, he served as an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State, working in the Archives of the Section for General Affairs. Starting July 10, 2020, he served as the Director of the Historical Archives of the Archdiocese of Palermo.
May Friar Dominic and Friar Lauro (who will serve as the archivist of his Province), always have the firm conviction that “the conservation of the document and of the profit that the document can provide” is part of the search for Christ “who operates in time and who writes, He Himself, His story through our papers which are the echoes and traces…of the passage of the Lord Jesus, in the world.”
In fact, “having veneration for these papers, documents, and archives, means having veneration for Christ, having a sense of the Church; it means giving to ourselves and those who will come after us the history of the passage of this phase of transitus Domini in the world” (PAUL VI, Address to the Ecclesiastical Archivists, September 26, 1963).

Friar Tomasz SZYMCZAK, Secretary General