Pope Francis appoints Antuan Ilgit SJ Auxiliary Bishop of Anatolia
Today, Monday 28 August 2023, the Holy See announced the appointment of Antuan Ilgit SJ as Auxiliary Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia (Turkey).
Who is Antuan Ilgit?
Father Antuan Ilgit was born in Hersbruck, in the Federal Republic of Germany, on 22 June 1972, to Turkish parents. He grew up in Turkey, in Mersin, Cilicia, a few kilometres from Tarsus. In 1994, he obtained a four-year degree in Public Administration from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of the Gazi Üniversitesi in Ankara.
After his first steps in religious life in the Emilia-Romagna Province of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor, he entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Genoa on 1 November 2005, and made his First Vows in Padua in 2007. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University (2008), he was ordained a deacon on 18 April 2009 in Venice. Afterwards, he obtained a licence in Moral Theology with a focus on bioethics at the Accademia Alfonsiana (2011).
He was ordained a priest on 26 June 2010 in the Gesù Church in Rome through the imposition of hands and prayer of consecration by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo. Afterwards, he served for a short time as assistant to the priest of the Turkish-speaking Catholic community in the parish of Meryemana in Ankara, Turkey, as well as treasurer of the Jesuit community. Sent to the United States of America for special studies, he first completed a two-year Master's degree in Medical Ethics at Saint Joseph's University (2013) and then a canonical doctorate in Moral Theology at Boston College (2017).
From 2018 to 2020 for a two-year period he was a community animator, member of the formation team and spiritual father at the Pontifical Interregional Seminary of Campania in Posillipo. From 2017 until now he has been a lecturer in Moral Theology and Bioethics at the San Luigi Section of the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy; his research focuses on disability, sexual morality and interreligious dialogue with Islam, starting with questions of bioethics. From September 2020 to April 2021 he did his Tertianship in Salamanca (Spain).
In 2021, the President of the Conference of European Provincials, Fr Franck Janin SJ, sent him on a mission to Turkey, to serve the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia where Fr Ilgit works as Vicar Delegate and Chancellor, as well as National Youth and Vocations Pastoral Leader on behalf of the Turkish Bishops' Conference (TEC).
Read also: Antuan Ilgit: the Turkish Jesuit who lived through the earthquake
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