Fr. Andrei Paz, Filipino, new superior general of the missionaries of Saint Columban

The election during the 2024 general assembly which took place in Lima, Peru. He succeeds Irish priest Fr. Tim Mulroy and will remain in office for the next six years. A priest since 2009, he has carried out his ministry in Taiwan and also in China and the Philippines. Founded in 1918, today they are present in 15 countries.

Manila (AsiaNews) - The Filipino priest Fr. Andrei Paz is the new superior general of the missionaries of Saint Columban, an Irish institute that has a long history of apostolate in Asia, including in mainland China, with ties that continue today as we recalled in recent days in Ecclesia in Asia. The election took place during the 2024 general assembly of the institute scheduled every six years and which took place in recent days in Lima, the capital of Peru.

“It is with great joy - we read in a statement sent to AsiaNews - 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 is. Andrei Paz in the leadership role.” He will remain in office, continues the note from the Missionary Society of Saint Columban, "for a period of six years".

Fr. Paz is originally from La Union, a province in the Ilocos region, on the island of Luzon, in the northwestern Philippines, and is assigned to the China mission unit. The religious joined the missionaries of Saint Columban in 1998 and was ordained in 2009. In 2010 he was sent for a period of mission to Taiwan, then transferred to China three years later, starting from 2013 where he was alongside the disabled. His studies also include a doctorate in occupational therapy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska (in the United States), which he attended from 2015 to 2018. After completing his training, the priest worked at the Malate church in Manila, in the Philippines.

He succeeds his Irish brother Fr.  Tim Mulroy as head of the institute at its current headquarters is in Hong Kong. Founded in 1918 by Irish priests Edward Galvin (missionary in China where he 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 work in particular to support the poorest and protect creation.

The society is named after Saint Columban, a 6th century Irish monk who preached the Gospel during his life 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 particularly active on the Asian continent and, at a national level, in addition to the aforementioned China (and Hong Kong) we find them in South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Pakistan and Taiwan. At least thirty houses or hundreds of members, the great majority of whom are priests.