The Central European Jesuits will have a new provincial superior in the summer: Father Thomas Hollweck SJ (56) was appointed provincial superior of the Central European Province by Father Arturo Sosa SJ, superior general of the Jesuits. The Central European Province of the religious community announced this on Friday.
Father Hollweck will take up the new role on July 31, 2024. He will succeed Father Bernhard Bürgler SJ, who has headed the cross-border province since its founding.
Thomas Hollweck comes from Neumarkt id Oberpfalz in Germany and studied theology in Eichstätt and Rome before joining the Society of Jesus in 1992 as a candidate for the priesthood in the diocese of Eichstätt. After novitiate with the Jesuits, he worked as a university chaplain at the University Community (KHG) of Munich, followed by postgraduate studies in spiritual theology in Madrid.
In 2009, Father Hollweck moved to the Archdiocese of Hamburg as a spiritual and pastoral advisor, where he also became superior of the Jesuit community of Kleiner Michel. From 2010 to 2015 he assisted the provincial superior of the German Jesuit Province as a consultant. In 2015 he was appointed master of novices for the German, Lithuanian-Latvian, Austrian, Swiss and Hungarian provinces at the Jesuit novitiate in Nuremberg, and with the founding of the Central European Province in 2021 he was appointed its first master of novices and provincial delegate for the young people and vocations.
Joy with succession planning
The current provincial, Fr Bernhard Bürgler, expressed his joy at the succession plan. All confreres are involved in the decision-making process. “After we have managed to establish and strengthen the foundations of our province in recent years, the focus now will be to further fill our apostolic mission with life,” said Bürgler. Father Hollweck’s experiences with young people in student ministry and in the novitiate would help him “give innovative impulses.”
All leadership roles in the Jesuit order are temporary. Provincials are generally appointed for six years. All Jesuits in the respective province are involved in the decision-making process in a multi-phase process. On this basis, the superior general in Rome decides who will become the new provincial.
(kap/kna/pm – mg)