Merle Salazar fdnsc, new companion of the Laity of the Chevalier Family
The Trigeneralate and the International Council of the Laity of the Chevalier Family are delighted to announce that Sr Merle Salazar fdnsc has accepted the invitation to become the new companion of the laity. Sr Merle will work together with Fr Hans until the Assembly in Cebu, where she will be welcomed and commissioned.
Sr Merle, a Filipino born in Tarlac in 1968, is a member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, an international missionary congregation founded in France in 1874. Prior to joining religious life in 1995, she was a Certified Public Accountant and worked as a manager for Budget and Financial Planning. She made her first profession in 1998.
As a religious, she served her Congregation in the areas of formation and administration. In addition to her training as formator, she also pursued graduate studies and earned a Masters in Religious Studies major in Scripture from the Institute of Formation and Religious Studies writing a thesis on Mary, the Mother of Jesus. She promotes knowing Our Lady of the Sacred Heart as Mother-Disciple of Jesus.
In 2011, she was elected to her Congregation’s General Council. While at the General Council, she was in charge of formation and the accompaniment of their lay members. She was in this role until September 2022.
In her almost 11 years in their General Council, Sr Merle saw the beauty and the necessity of the partnership in mission between the religious and the lay members of the Chevalier Family. She sees this partnership and collaboration as essential, not only for the future, but in the present; not only in countries where the number of religious has diminished or is diminishing but also in places where there are still many young religious. We have been gifted with the beautiful mission of making the love of God experienced wherever we may find ourselves. What better way to fulfill this mission than TOGETHER, lay, religious and priests, journeying together, one in the Heart of Christ.
