Friars Elect Successor to St. Dominic

The General Chapter of the Order of Preachers, founded by St Dominic, elected this Sunday, 5th September, Brother Bruno Cadoré as the new Master.  Elected for a nine-year term, he takes the place of fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa (Argentinean), Master from 2001 to 2010, who succeeded Brother Timothy Radcliffe, an English brother known throughout the world for his writings and preaching.  The last French brother to hold the office was Brother Vincent de Couesnongle, Master of the Order from 1974 to 1983.

Gathered in Rome since the first of September, the General Chapter of the Order is composed of 127 delegates coming from every continent.  It is made up partly of Priors Provincial but also delegates elected by the friars themselves according to the democratic tradition of the Dominican Order.  The General Chapter, which is the Order’s sovereign governmental body, will over the next two weeks work to establish the major priorities of the Order that the newly elected Master must pursue during his term of office.

Aged 56, Brother Bruno Cadoré has been the Prior Provincial of the Province of France for eight years and before that oversaw the formation of young friars, particularly in Lille.  A medical Doctor before entering the noviciate, he later spent two years in Haiti before beginning his Dominican studies.  As a Doctor of Theology, he taught biomedical ethics at the Catholic University of Lille while directing the centre for medical ethics.  He was elected Prior Provincial in 2002.  Author of several books on biomedical ethics, he has been on the National Aids Council of France since January 2008.

During his term of office, the Province of France welcomed many young brothers into the Order.  Bruno Cadoré also worked to develop the Dominican life in Scandinavia, Equatorial Africa and West Africa, as well as in the Arab world, especially in Cairo and Iraq, which he has visited frequently.