By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, April 2, 2022: A Divine Word priest from India will head an international mission office that keeps Catholic religious congregations updated about global issues and helps them adapt their works to modern situation.

Father John Paul will take over as the director of the Rome-based Service of Documentation and Study on Global Mission (SEDOS), a forum of Catholic Institutes of Consecrated Life that commit to deepening their understanding of global mission.

Father John Paul currently heads the media office of the diocese of Jaipur, Rajasthan.

“I am excited working for mission and communication. God gave me this beautiful opportunity,” Father John Paul told Matters India April 2 after the news of about his appointment appeared in a WhatsApp group.

He said he would reach Rome on April 15 where he had earlier done his doctoral studies.

The global office encourages research and disseminates information through its bulletin and Homepage, the annual SEDOS Residential Seminar (beginning of May), public conferences, and workshops.

The office began in 1964 during the Second Vatican Council when nine congregations working in missions met informally in Rome to exchange information and opinions on mission in the Church.

The SEDOS website claims the group made a significant contribution to the council document Ad Gentes (To the Nations) that establishes evangelization as one of the fundamental missions of the Catholic Church and reaffirms the tie between evangelization and charity for the poor. The document was greatly influenced by the group’s discussions with members of the Roman Curia.

The nine leaders then decided to a permanent secretariat. Father Johan Schütte, the then superior general of the Society of the Divine Word, made available the premises on college grounds in Rome, where the SEDOS secretariat continues to operate.

By 2017, the office had 80 members, many with their mission houses in Rome.

Father John Paul was born June 27, 1962, at Khandwa in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, two years before SEDOS was set up. He took his first vows in the Divine Word society on April 14, 1984, and final vows December 14, 1989. He studied philosophy and theology from Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth in Rome. He was ordained a priest on May 27, 1990, in his native place.

He has doctorates both in Hindi literature and social communication, besides diplomas in Mass Media and Journalism.

He served as the Signis India as its national secretary during 2008-2010. He was the director media commission of the Delhi archdiocese for ten years from 2000. He also edited the “Dilli Vani,” (Voice of Delhi), the archdiocesan magazine in Hindi. He had also headed the Satprakash Sanchar Kendra, the Divine Word Society’s communication center in Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh.