Archbishop Theodoros Kontidis

The new Catholic Archbishop of Athens, His Excellency Theodoros Kontidis, was born in Thessaloniki on 11 March 1956. After his secondary studies in Athens he went to Rome, entered the Pontifical Greek College of Saint Athanasius, and attended philosophy courses at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Later, in Leuven, Belgium, he completed his theological studies. In 1983 he entered the Order of the Jesuit Fathers. After his novitiate he completed postgraduate studies at the Centre Sevres in Paris. He was ordained a priest on 9 October 1988 and was appointed assistant parish priest at the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Athens. After his formal religious vows in 1995, he was appointed responsible for Youth Pastoral Care, Superior of the Jesuit Monastery of Athens, Director of the magazine Open Horizons and of the Manresa Spiritual Centre. In recent months he served as parish priest of the Parish of Saint Andrew in Patras. Apart from Greek, he speaks Italian, French and English.