Archbishop Henryk Hoser, SAC – new Archbishop of Warsaw-Praga
(KAI)
On 24 May 2008, the Holy Father Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Henryk Hoser (65), a member of the Pallottine Fathers, as Archbishop of Warsaw-Praga. He was the Secretary Adjunct of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies. He takes over the Archdiocese of Warsaw-Praga after Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz, who was nominated to the Metropolitan of Gdansk on 17 April 2008.
Henryk Hoser was born on 27 November 1942 in Warsaw. In 1966, he completed medical studies at the Warsaw University of Medicine (1960-66) and appointed assistant there. In 1969, he was the head of the internal medicine ward in the Regional Hospital in Ziebice. After having joined the Society for the Catholic Apostolate (the Pallottine Fathers) he was ordained a priest in 1974. After completing a course of French and a course of tropical medicine in Paris he went on missions to Rwanda where he stayed till 1995. He was a parish priest, family apostolate animator, head of apostolic formation for the laity, promoter of the apostolate of the press. In 1978 he opened a medical-social centre in the capital Kigali, overseeing it for 17 years, and he also initiated the Centre for Family Action. He is co-founder and secretary of the African Federation of Family Action, begun in 2001. For several years, he served as Secretary of the Bishops’ Commission for Health Pastoral and then of the Bishops’ Commission for the Family, president of the Association of Medical Centres in Kigali (BUFMAR), and head of programs to monitor AIDS. He worked in many other offices. For 10 years he was the Regional Superior of the Pallottine Fathers and also president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in Rwanda. As an expert in family and development he participated in the Special Synod for Africa in 1994. In the same year, after the bloody civil war had ended in Rwanda, the Apostolic See appointed him Apostolic Visitor to that country. He held this post for two years until the new Papal Nuncio, Bishop Juliusz Janusz from Poland, was appointed. After his return to Europe he was SAC Regional Superior in France (1996-2003) and member of the Missionary Council of the Conference of Major Superiors in France. He co-founded the African Federation of Family Action (in 2001). In 2004, he became Rector of the Pallottine Mission Procura in Brussels and was involved in pastoral ministry in the ambit of the European Union. On 22 January 2005, John Paul II appointed Fr Hoser the Secretary Adjunct of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PDM). He was ordained a Bishop on 19 March 2005 in the chapel of the Pontifical University Urbanianum in Rome.
"Niedziela" 22/2008