The Curia
The Curia is composed of the Superior General , the Assistants General , the Procurator General, the Procurator General at the Holy See who can also be named by the superior general the Postulator of Causes for the Congregation.
The General Council is formed by Fr. Józef Kapuściak, Vicar General, Fr. José María Nieto Varas, Fr. Gerard Du Tran Cong, and Fr. José Antgonio Ubillús Lamadrid.
Procurator General is Fr. John W Gouldrick
The Procurator before the Holy See and Postulator General is Fr. Giuseppe Guerra.
Those individuals appointed by the Superior General to undertake a role of service in the Congregation are also members of the Curia. Thus the superior general’s delegate to the Vincentian Family, the Director of the Communications Office, the Librarian and the Archivist and two Brothers who serve in distinct capacities are members of the house.
Other individuals perform services for the Congregation but do not live in the house in Rome: the Congregation’s delegate to the United Nations, the Director of the Vincentian Solidarity Office, and the Director of the Development Office
Delegate of the Superior General to the Vincentian Family: Fr. Manuel Ginete
Director of the Office of Communications is Fr. Julio Suescun
Librarian and Archivist: P. Alfredo Becerra
The lay Brothers who assists the Curia: Yehya Fahed y L’ubomír Žemla
Address of the House:
Via dei Capasso, 30
00164 ROMA
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Interviews immediately after their election. (Vincentiana 2005)
Vicar General – Józef Kapuściak
I was born on 25 November 1950 in Podwik in Southern Poland, the fifth child of my parents who were simple and very religious country people. I passed my childhood in the countryside, going to school and taking care of the cows and sheep. When I was 18 years old, I entered the Congregation of the Mission, following the footsteps of two of my brothers who were already members of the Congregation. I made my novitiate (1968-1969) and philosophy and theology studies in Kraków between 1969 and 1975. I was ordained in 1975 and worked for two years (1975-1977) in youth ministry in a large parish. From 1977-1981 I did my specialized studies in the Gregorian University, receiving my Doctorate in Spirituality. Back in Poland I spent all my time in formation. I have been the Director of our Major Seminary in Kraków, rector of the Diocesan Major Seminary in Gdansk, superior and rector of the Theology Institute of the Congregation of the Mission in Kraków. In 1998 I was elected Assistant General of the Congregation and I have been in this job for the last six years.
– In your judgment, what would be the three biggest problems facing the Congregation right now?
– The initial and ongoing formation of its members, above all, in the young provinces with a large number of vocations; the formation of our formators; the fidelity to our charism, that is, the transparency of our Vincentian identity; the lack of vocations and the aging of our confreres in the provinces of Western Europe and the United States.
– Does the Congregation of the Mission have anything important to say to today’s world?
– I think it does. I want the Congregation of the Mission to show the world that the preferential option for the poor, professed by the Church, is not just a beautiful saying, but rather a reality.
(See also “The Office of the Vicar General (I. Fernandez Mendoza)
Assistant General – José Antonio Ubillús
I was born in Olmos, Lambayeque, Peru on 30 June 1942. I did my primary and secondary studies in the “Manuel Pardo School” in Chiclayo, run by the Vincentians. I became incorporated in the Congregation on 15 February 1969 and was ordained on 27 December of the same year. I studied philosophy in the Conciliar Seminary “St. Toribio de Mogrovejo” in Lima, and theology in the Pontifical Civil Faculty of Theology Lima. I broadened my studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, obtaining a Doctorate in Theology in 1973. I have worked in parish ministry as a pastoral vicar, pastor and episcopal vicar. I have also worked in vocation ministry and the formation of our own students, besides being a professor at the Superior Institute of Theological Studies in Lima (1975-1978) and in the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (1974-1992). I have also served as Visitor of Peru (1990-1998) and Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Biblical Pastoral, Catechetical and Indigenous Pastoral for the Episcopal Conference of Peru (1996-1998). For the past six years I have been Assistant General. I accept this service to the Congregation from my Vincentian and gospel option for the poor.
(See also “The Work of the Assistants General” (J. Kapusiak)
Assistant General – José María Nieto Varas
I was born on 18 July 1955 in Palencia, a city in northern Spain. I was the first of five children whom my parents educated in the Christian faith. Through the influence of my mother and the Daughters of Charity, at ten years of I entered the minor seminary of the Congregation of the Mission in Tardajos (Burgos). I started my novitiate in Avila on 11 September 1972. I studied philosophy and theology in Madrid and in Burgos, and was ordained a priest on 25 January 1981. Shortly afterwards I was sent to Rome where I studied Dogmatic Theology (1981-1983). For the next ten years, I worked at the Internal Seminary in Avila and, at the same time, I was part of the Popular Mission Team of the Madrid Province. As a missionary, I have had the joy of working in Spain, Honduras and Puerto Rico. I have also had the privilege of participating as an invited guest in a General Assembly of the Daughters of Charity. I was named Secretary General of the Congregation of the Mission, a job I have carried out from 1999 until now. At the moment of accepting this new service, I want to thank God for all the people he has placed in my life, and I want to ask you to pray for me that I might be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and of St. Vincent
de Paul.
(See also “The Work of the Assistants General” (J. Kapusiak)
Assistant General – Gérard Tran Cong Du
I was born on 15 May 1945 in Nam Dinh, North Vietnam. I was ordained a priest on 4 June 1974. My ministries have been many and varied: pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Dalat, Vietnam; professor of Moral Theology in the seminary and in religious communities; Provincial Director of the Daughters of Charity of the Vietnam Province; Director of the Novitiate and Director of the Vincentian students of the philosophy cycle. I am grateful for the confidence you have shown me. I leave aside my own interests and accept what the Congregation asks of me at this time.
(See also “The Work of the Assistants General” (J. Kapusiak)