AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA – New National Director of the Pontifical Missionary Societies appointed

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, on 13 June 2014 appointed as National Director of the Pontifical Missionary Societies (PMS) in South Africa for a five year term (2014-2019), Fr. Gordon Paul Rees, a member of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ).
The new National Director was born in Pretoria (South Africa) 22 March 1962. He joined the Comboni Missionaries 1995. He studied philosophy at St. John Vianney Seminary (1995-96) made his first vows in Namugongo (Uganda) where he did his Novitiate. In Rome he studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University (1998-2001) and pastoral theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas (2001-2002). Ordained a priest on 17 August 2002, he was sent on mission to Colombia, where he remained until 2011. After a sabbatical year, he returned to South Africa, where he is presently Superior of the Comboni community at Lynnwood Ridge Centre of Studies, Pretoria, and administrator of the periodical Worldwide. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 02/09/2014)