Fr José Nunes is the new Provincial of the Province of Portugal
Fr José Manuel Valente da Silva Nunes has been elected as the new Prior Provincial of the Province of Portugal. The election has been confirmed by the Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadoré and fr José has accepted. He succeeds fr Pedro da Cruz Fernandes who has just concluded his term.
Fr José was born in 1956 at Lisbon. He had his novitiate at the Convent of Toulouse after which he made his religious profession in the Order in 1977 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1984. He studied Theology at the Catholic University of Portugal, Pastoral Institute of Madrid and the Pontifical University of Salamanca where he concluded his doctoral thesis in 1989.
For 9 years, he was on mission in Angola where, in the company of other friars, he founded the community at Waku Kungo. He has been part of the pastoral team at the Parish of St Dominic, Benfica, moderator of the Provincial Centre of Studies, President of the Institute of St Thomas Aquinas and the Vicar of the Provincial.
He is a professor and a chaplain at the Catholic University of Portugal. He was the initiator of the Missionary Animation Department of the Patriarchate of Lisbon and has been involved in the Fé dos Homens programme. He has been teaching Pastoral and Practical Theology and his academic search are mainly in the field of Humanities with emphasis on Philosophy, Religion and Ethics. He has also published a number of articles and books.
Fr José was first elected Provincial in 2005 and he served for 2 terms.
(18 July 2017)