Change of Leadership at Fe y Alegría International

Jesuit Dani Villanueva, SJ was officially introduced as the new General Coordinator of the International Federation of Fe y Alegría during the XXXVIII General Assembly of Fe y Alegría in Honduras.

The appointment was made after the federation assembly held in Sao Paulo in the last week of October 2022 and the official handover ceremony took place on March 24 in Tela, Honduras.

With this change, Fr. Carlos Fritzen, SJ, ends his functions. Carlos spent 7 years at the head of this International Federation with more than 2,000 educational centers and serving nearly one million people in 22 countries in America, Europe, Africa and Asia, focused on the promotion and development of the most disadvantaged populations through education. Carlos Fritzen thus culminates an important stage of consolidation work and federative projection framed in the Global Plan of Federative Priorities 2021-2025 (PGPF 2021-2025) and its Implementation Plan 2021-2023 (PIM 2021-2023).

Dani Villanueva joins this new position after 14 years of working in different positions in Entreculturas – Fe y Alegría Spain. The last 8 years as Executive Vice President of Entreculturas and Alboan, and Head of International Development of the Society of Jesus in Spain. Dani has been part of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Fe y Alegría and since 2019 coordinates the internationalization process of the movement and its Global Strategy commission.

Fe y Alegría, together with the Jesuit Refugee Service and the networks of schools and Universities form the heart of the educational service of the Society of Jesus. In the words of Father General of the Society of Jesus himself, “Fe y Alegría has become one of the frontier education networks that gives a new face to the educational apostolate of the Society of Jesus. I dare say that Fe y Alegría is the most significant international network of quality education for the popular sectors that the Society of Jesus, in collaboration with so many other congregations and persons, offers to the Church and to the world.” (Speech at the 47th International Congress of Fe y Alegría. El Escorial, Madrid, September 29, 2018).

In his welcoming speech, Dani referred to Father Arturo Sosa’s emphases for this new stage of Fe y Alegría: (1) the great challenge of quality education in post-pandemic times within the framework of the global educational pact, (2) the call to the globality of the movement and its openness to new frontiers, cultures and contexts, and (3) the linkage and alignment with the universal apostolic preferences of the Society of Jesus. These will surely be some of the guidelines for the coming years of the federation.

For more information on the Fe y Alegría Movement, please visit https://www.feyalegria.org/.