Rome (Fides Service) - Father Jose Ornelas Carvalho has been elected new Superior General of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians). He is the eighth successor of the founder Venerable Jean Leon Dehon. The election took place on 27 May during the 21st General Chapter which started on 12 May at the Dehonian General House in Rome. Father Jose Ornelas Carvalho was born at Porto da Cruz Madeira, Portugal 5 January 1954. Since 2000 he has been Provincial Superior of Portugal. He made his first vows in the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart on 29 September 1972 at Aveiro. After two years of philosophical studies he went to Mozambique for a period of missionary formation. He was ordained a priest on 9 August 1981 in Porto da Cruz. In 1997 he obtained a doctorate in Biblical Theology. He is a teacher at the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon; secretary of the faculty of theology and formator at the Dehonian seminary in Alfragide. He speaks, besides Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. He was a member of the preparatory commission for the 21 general Chapter: “Dehonians on mission: a heart open with solidarity”.
At present there are about 2,300 Dehonians, priest and brothers working in 38 different countries. Their service to the Church is mainly the pastoral ministry among the little ones and the humble, with workers and the poor; priestly and religious formation and in the field of culture. A privileged form of their apostolate is missionary activity. SL (Fides Service 28/5/2003 EM lines 17 Words: 257)