SVD elects missionary to PHL as new superior general

AN SVD missionary in the Philippines has been elected new superior general of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) during the congregation’s 17th General Chapter held in Rome, July 2.

Fr. Heinz Kuluke was provincial superior of the Southern Province of the SVD in the Philippines and professor of Philosophy at the University of San Carlos, Cebu prior to his election as the congregation’s top official.

He will take over the post from Fr. Antonio Pernia, a Boholano native who served as the congregation’s Superior General for two terms.

A native of Spelle, Germany, Kuluke was assigned to the SVD mission in the country’s Southern province after his ordination to the priesthood in 1986. Since then, he has made the Philippines his home, first in Agusan del Sur and later on in Cebu, where he has lived since 1994.

He served as vice-president for Academic Affairs of USC from 1997 to 1999 and Rector of the SVD community at the University of San Carlos from 1996 to 2005.

Kuluke was elected provincial superior of the Southern province in 2005; was re-elected in 2008 and again in 2011, for a third term.

Despite his academic assignment, the SVD missionary was also known to go out of the university walls to visit children living in dumpsites, prostitutes and homeless within the city.

He helped establish the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation-Integrated Development Centre, Inc. (JPIC-IDC), a non-government organization that implements developmental projects in various areas of Cebu and Mindanao.

In January this year, Kuluke was conferred a Federal Cross of Merit Award by the Federal government of Germany in recognition for his meritorious work among the poor and marginalized of Cebu.

The SVD has at present some 6,102 members worldwide, more than 500 of whom are Filipinos. Around 140 Filipino SVDs are assigned in missionary posts abroad.

In the Philippines, the SVD has three ecclesiastical provinces: The Philippine North (PHN) that comprises mission from Pangasinan to Aparri, the Philippine Central (PHC) that covers Tarlac, Manila, Mindoro, Bicol and Palawan, and the Philippine South (PHS) which is present in the Visayas and Mindanao islands. (CBCPNews)