On 12 July 2022, the Master of the Order, Brother Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, appointed Br. Jamshed Albert Gill, OP, son of the Vice Province “Ibn-e-Mariam” of Pakistan, as Socius for Asia Pacific after the sudden and untimely death of Br. Amirtha Raj Mannes, OP, of the Province of India.
Brother Jamshed Albert was born in 1968 in a very devout Catholic family. His parents Albert A. Gill and Violet were teachers and worked with Dominican missionaries from the United States. Br. Jamshed studied in Catholic schools run by the Dominicans. After his initial studies he entered the novitiate in 1989 and made his simple profession on 12 February 1990. He studied at the National Catholic Institute of Theology in Karachi, Pakistan, and was ordained a priest on 27 September 1996. He completed his licentiate in Moral Theology (2004) and then his doctorate (2014) at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.
Brother Jamshed Albert served the Church in Pakistan in various capacities. After his ordination he was assistant Pastor in the Holy Rosary Parish in Warispura, Faisalabad for one year. From 1996 to 2002, he was Promoter of the Youth and Promoter of Vocations. From 1997 to 2002 he was also in charge of the pre-novitiate in Sahiwal. He worked in vocation promotion in close collaboration with other religious and diocesan youth promoters. He also served the Vice-Province as regent of studies (2007-2011) and promoter of ongoing formation (2019 to 2022).
After his studies in Rome, he taught Biblical and Theological Courses at the National Catholic Institute of Theology in Karachi (Major Seminary), the St. Elizabeth Catholic Hospital in Hyderabad-Sind, the Christian Study Center in Rawalpindi, and the Theological and Interfaith Center of the Jesuits in Lahore. He has been engaged in the ongoing formation of both the religious and clergy. He has also served as the secretary of the committee for the translation of the Roman Missal in Urdu, and the director for interreligious dialogue for the Catholic Diocese of Multan.
Brother Jamshed also served at the Pastoral Institute Multan, an apostolate of the friars in collaboration with the Diocese of Multan, where he was director for the past eight years (2014 to 2022). In that institute, he has developed the legacy of his Dominican predecessors in many ways. His apostolic work at Baha-ul-Din Zikariya University in Multan, southern Punjab, has helped many Muslim students pursue their master’s and doctoral degrees in the field of Christian-Muslim relations. These engagements have helped him reach out and develop lasting connections with a much wider circle of religious and cultural pluralities.
We commend to your prayers our brother’s service to the Order and to the Church.
