Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Fr. George Smith elected Basilians' General superior

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Basilian Father George Smith, former president of St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta, has been elected general superior of his order.

Smith, a 49-year-old native of Toronto, currently serves as president of St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan.

He will be joined on the council of the Basilian Fathers by four other priests, including the current president of St. Joseph's College, Father Timothy Scott.

The congregation held its general chapter July 4-16 at St. John Fisher College in Rochester.

Fifty-eight elected delegates gathered for two weeks to review the state of the congregation, plan for the future and elect new leadership.

The chapter of 2010 identified the areas of unity of purpose, vocations, responding to the signs of the times, retirement, and the Paschal Mystery in our Basilian lives as key themes for the next four years.

Others elected to the general council were Basilian Fathers David Katulski, director of the Cardinal Flahiff Basilian Centre in Toronto, Kevin Storey, a high school teacher in Houston who is currently taking graduate studies in educational administration, and Paul English, who is involved in social justice and peace work.

The charism of the Basilian Fathers is education within the Church's mission of evangelization.

Basilians work in high schools, universities, and parishes in France, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Colombia.

There are presently 224 ordained Basilian priests, six professed scholastics, 10 associates and 76 lay associate members.

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