The election took place during the 2024 General Assembly held in Lima, Peru. He succeeds Irishman Fr Tim Mulroy and will hold the position for the next six years. A priest since 2009, he has ministered in Taiwan and also in China and the Philippines. Founded in 1918, it is currently present in 15 countries.
Manila () – Filipino priest Fr. Andrei Paz is the new superior general of the missionaries of Saint Columba, an Irish institute that has a long history of apostolate in Asia, including in mainland China, with ties that continue to this day as we remembered in Ecclesia in Asia in past days. The election took place during the 2024 General Assembly of the institute, scheduled every six years and held these days in Lima, capital of Peru.
“It is with great joy,” reads a statement sent to , “that we announce that the 2024 General Assembly, after a period of prolonged discernment, prayer and many conversations and dialogues in the Spirit, has elected Fr. Andrei Paz for the role of guide. He will remain in office, the St. Columba Missionary Society note continues, “for a period of six years.”
P. Paz is originally from La Unión, a province in the Ilocos region, on the island of Luzon, northwest of the Philippines, and is assigned to the missionary unit in China. He joined the St. Columba missionaries in 1998 and was ordained in 2009. In 2010, he was sent for a missionary period in Taiwan, and three years later he moved to China, starting in 2013, where he worked with disabled people. . His studies also included a doctorate in occupational therapy at Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska (in the United States), which he completed from 2015 to 2018. After completing his training, the priest worked at the Malate church, in Manila (Philippines). ).
He succeeds his Irish colleague, Father Tim Mulroy, who currently resides in Hong Kong, at the head of the institute. Founded in 1918 by the Irish priests Edward Galvin (a missionary in China, where he had collaborated with John Fraser, later founder of the Scarboro Missionaries) and John Blowick, today it is made up of priests – who collaborate with lay people and nuns – and is present in 15 countries. Its missionaries are especially dedicated to helping the poorest and protecting creation. The society is named after Saint Columban, a 6th century Irish monk who during his lifetime preached the Gospel first in his country of origin and then moved to the territories that are now part of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Today they are especially active on the Asian continent and, at the country level, in addition to the already mentioned China (and Hong Kong) we find them in South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Pakistan and Taiwan. They have at least thirty or hundreds of members, the vast majority priests.
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