Adrian Dominicans
Visit with Master of the Dominican Order

April 16, Cincinnati, Ohio – Four Adrian Dominican Sisters were among other Dominicans on hand to greet Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP, Master of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) as he made a fraternal visit to St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati. The Mass, prayer and luncheon reception at St. Gertrude Parish were one part of the Master’s visit to the United States. He also attended the April 14 Founding Event of a new women’s congregation, the Dominican Sisters of Peace, which took place in St. Louis.

Father Darren Pierre, OP, Prior, invited Dominicans from the region to attend the Mass and reception to welcome Father Carlos. Among those attending the event were Father Edward Ruane, OP, Vicar for the United States; Father Darren and the five other Dominican friars at the priory; Nashville Dominican Sisters who serve in St. Gertrude School, along with their novices and novice mistress; Sister Sandra Delgado, OP, a Grand Rapids Dominican ministering in Lexington, Kentucky; and Adrian Dominican Sisters Marie Goretti Browne, OP, and Joan Murphy, OP, of Lexington, Jeanette Jabour, OP, of Cincinnati, and Barbara Kelley, OP, of Adrian. The event was an opportunity for Dominicans in the area to gather, celebrate the Easter Season, and welcome Father Carlos. 

With Father Carlos, from left: Sister Maria Goretti Browne, OP, of Lexington, Kentucky; Sister Barbara Kelley, OP, of Adrian; Sister Jeanette Jabour, OP, of Cincinnati; and Sister Joan Murphy, OP, of Lexington.

Father Carlos, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected Master of the Order on July 14, 2001. While studying law at the Pontifica Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) in 1978, he met two professors who were Dominicans and was attracted to the order. He entered the novitiate of the Argentinian Province of Saint Augustine in 1980 and made his first profession of vows in 1981, the same year that he received his law degree.

After his ordination to the priesthood in 1987, Father Carlos served as secretary of his province. In 1989, he was sent to Rome to study canon law and, during his years in Santa Sabina, took on secretarial jobs with the Master of the Order. He received his doctorate in canon law and, while still living in Rome, was elected Prior of the novitiate in the Argentine Province. Through the years, he served as professor law and moral theology; university campus minister for the Diocese of Mar del Plata; secretary of his province; prior of the Dominican house of formation in Buenos Aires; a member of the theological reflection team of the Argentinean Conference of Religious; professor of canon law at the Angelicum in Rome; and rector of the Basilica of Santa Sabina.

Father Carlos is the 87^th Master of the Order, directly succeeding Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP. He follows in the footsteps of the first Master of the Order, St. Dominic, presiding over a worldwide family of Dominicans: friars, cloistered nuns, congregations of apostolic and contemplative sisters and laity. The next Master of the Order will be elected during the friars’ General Chapter in Rome in 2010.

Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP, (center) Master of the Order of Preachers, paid a fraternal visit to the St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati on April 16. Celebrating Mass with him at St. Gertrude Church were Father Edward Ruane, OP, (left), Vicar for the United States, and Father Darren Pierre, OP, prior of St. Gertrude Priory and pastor of the parish.