Father Tesfaye Tadesse re-elected Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries

Father Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, 52, has been re-elected on June 25 2022, by a large majority, Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus during the 19th General Chapter being being held from June 1-30 at the Institute's General House in Rome.

Father Tesfaye was born on Sept. 22 1969 in Harar, Ethiopia. He made his perpetual vows in the Institute of the Comboni Missionaries on Nov. 1, 1994, and was ordained a priest in his Archdiocese of Addis Ababa on Aug. 26 August 1995. Immediately after completing his theological studies in Rome, he spent a year in Egypt to learn Arabic and then was assigned to Sudan where he worked from 1997 to 2000. He studied and obtained his license at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Pisai) in Rome from 2000 to 2001.

Then he returned to his native country to carry out his pastoral service and, after a short course on formation at the Salesianum in Rome, he served in vocation promotion and formation from 2003 to 2004. In 2005 he was elected provincial superior of the Comboni Missionaries in Ethiopia, a position he held until 2009 and during which he was also president of the Association of Major Superiors in his country.

In the 17th General Chapter of 2009 he was elected General Councilor of the Institute and responsible for Basic Formation and the circumscriptions of English-speaking Africa and Mozambique. At the following General Chapter in 2015, he was elected Superior General.