Passing the torch

From the In My Backyard Desk, a little news about a change where I work, at the Catholic Near East Welfare Association:

Msgr. John E. Kozar, former national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, has been appointed president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.

When the appointments take effect Sept. 15, he will succeed Msgr. Robert L. Stern, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York who has been the chief executive of the agency since 1987.

Msgr. Kozar, a 65-year-old priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, was elected to the post by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association’s board of trustees, chaired by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, and confirmed by the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI named him to head the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.

Following studies at St. Meinrad Seminary College in Indiana and St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, he was ordained a priest May 1, 1971. As part of his seminary training, he spent a summer at a mission in Juliaca, Peru.

Welcome, Monsignor!  Check out the rest at the link.