Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On May 30, 2014 Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, appointed rev. Leos Halbrstat, permanent deacon of the Diocese of Hradec Kralove as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in the Czech Republic for a five-year period (01/11/2014-31/10/2019).
The new National Director, who will take office on 1 November, is 51 years old. He studied at the agricultural high school in Prague and from 1990 to 1994 at the faculty of theology at the Charles IV Catholic University in Prague. He was ordained deacon in 2009, he served as a military chaplain in the army. He is married, has four children and his wife is the current director of the Works of the Diocese of Hradec Kralove. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 18/07/2014)