Msgr. John Kozar to Head CNEWA
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. Msgr. Kozar is pictured giving Communion during Sunday Mass in late February at St. Joseph Church in Mutunguru, Kenya.
(photo: CNS/Nancy Wiechec)
24 Jun 2011 – by Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — 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.
Then-Father Kozar spent the early years of his
priesthood as an associate pastor at various parishes in the Pittsburgh Diocese. From 1978 to 2001, he served as
development director for the diocese, making yearly
pastoral visits to a mission in Chimbote, Peru.
He also worked 1987-2001 as pilgrimage director
for the diocese, 1995-97 as vicar for clergy, 1995-2001 as
diocesan director of the Pontifical Mission Societies and
1997-2001 as director of the Diocesan Jubilee Office,
while simultaneously serving as pastor of several parishes.
Named national director of the Society for the
Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter Apostle
and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious in
January 2001, he added responsibility for the Holy
Childhood Association later that year.
Together the four agencies make up the Pontifical
Mission Societies in the United States, which raise
missionary awareness and mission funding under the
jurisdiction of the Vatican Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples.
He was named a monsignor in December 2003.