Juan Pablo Alcas Michilot was born on 17 August 1975 in Piura, the son of Pablo and Bertha. He learned about Don Bosco and the Salesians at the oratory in his city at the invitation of Fr. Casimiro Iraola while studying as an accountant.
He attended his pre-novitiate in Magdalena del Mar in 2000, and his novitiate in Chosica in 2001, making his first profession as a Salesian on Jan. 31, 2002. He then made perpetual profession on January 31, 2008, and was ordained a priest in Callao on June 5, 2010.
After ordination, he was assigned to the Magdalena House of Formation, and served as Provincial Vocational Animator until 2012, when he left for Rome to complete his Licentiate in Formation for Formators at the Salesian Pontifical University. Upon his return to Lima in 2014, he was sent to the "San Francisco de Sales" community in Breña, working as local pastoral animator and as Provincial Delegate for Missionary Animation.
In 2016 he was appointed Director of the Salesian Aspirantate and Pre-novitiate "Santo Domingo Savio" in Magdalena del Mar. In October 2017, he was elected Provincial Councilor and again assumed the position of Vocation Animator of the Province. In 2018 he became Rector of the "San Juan Bosco" Community in Rímac, where the formation house had meanwhile been transferred.
In December 2021 he became Novice Master at the "Sagrado Corazón" Inter-Provincial Novitiate in La Ceja, Colombia, a community where Fr. Alcas Michilot received this new call from the Lord.
"We welcome this appointment with great joy, as a great gift from God this Advent. I invite you to pray for Fr. Juan Pablo and to accompany him fraternally as you have done and continue to do with me," wrote Fr. Manuel Cayo, current Provincial of Peru, in a letter to his PER confreres. "I have recently manifested to him how this service is demanding and challenging, but the affection of the confreres, the co-responsibility of so many lay people, and the vitality of the young people make it a beautiful experience of God and growth in every sense. Juan Pablo has many of the qualities and requirements we have indicated for the Father Provincial we need at this time."
Fr. Alcas Michilot will assume this new ministry of animation and governance on Feb. 14, 2023, during a Eucharist at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Lima to be presided over by the Rector Major himself, Fr. Á.F. Artime.
"I bid farewell with the affection of always, in Don Bosco, entrusting to the Help of Christians our dear Peruvian people in these difficult times that the nation is going through," concluded Fr. Cayo.
