Pascual Chávez Villanueva

Pascual Chávez Villanueva
9th Rector Major of the Salesians
In office April 3, 2002 – March 25, 2014
Succeeded by	Ángel Fernández Artime
Provincial Mexico-Guadalajara
In office 1986–1994
Inter-American Region Councilor
In office 1996–2002
Personal details
Born	(1947-12-20) December 20, 1947 (age 76) San Luís Potosí, Mexico
Alma mater	Pontifical University of Salamanca
Profession	Priest

Pascual Chávez Villanueva SDB (born December 20, 1947) is a

His first approach to the leading position of the Salesians of Don Bosco came when he was elected as Regional Councilor during the 1996's 24th General Chapter with Fr. Juan Edmundo Vecchi as the Rector Major. He became then Councilor for the Inter-American Region, a Salesian administrative division in the Western Hemisphere that include Provinces in two continents: North America and northern South America. He would remain in that position until he was elected Rector Major in 2002.

During his government, the Salesian Order celebrated the Beatification of Ceferino Namuncurá (August 26, 1886 - May 11, 1905) in November 2007, an Argentinian young man from the Mapuche people of Río Negro Province, Argentina. Chávez wrote a book on his life, "Ceferino Namuncura, Fruits of the Preventive System" (2004).^[2]

In that same year, 2007, there was also the Beatification of the Spanish Salesian Martyrs. During the

As Rector Major, he saw the celebration of different anniversaries in the history of the Salesian Family: the 150th anniversary of the death of Saint Dominic Savio (March 8, 2007), the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Salesian Order of Don Bosco (December 18, 2009.)

He led the preparation of the Bicentenary of the Birth of Don Bosco (1815 - 2015), in which the relics of Saint John Bosco were brought to all Salesian Provinces around the world.^[5]

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