Like a number of religious organizations, the Dominican Order has a consultative status at the United Nations which entitles it to a Permanent Delegate who can rightly participate in debates and lobby for justice and peace everywhere especially in areas where our brothers live and work. All these is done mainly from the Geneva office of the UN but sometimes the Delegate of the Order also travels to the other UN offices in New York and Nairobi.
The Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cador has just appointed fr Michael Christopher Deeb as the Permanent Delegate of the Order to the UN. He is from the General Vicariate of South Africa and he replaces fr Olivier Poquillon who has just concluded his mandate.
Fr Michael was born in 1953 in South Africa. He made his first profession in the Order in 1987 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1991. He has been involved with the mission of Justice and Peace for a very long time. He has been the Promoter of Justice and Peace in the General Vicariate of South Africa, the Coordinator of Justice and Peace of the Bishops Conference of South Africa and the Promoter of Justice and Peace for the Dominican Family in Africa. For eight years, he was the International Chaplain of the Catholic Students Movements. He speaks English and French fluently.
Unlike his predecessor, fr Michael will reside mainly in Santa Sabina, Rome, from where he will coordinate his activities mainly at Geneva and in any part of the world where such activities may take him.
(12 January 2014)
