Fr. José Antunes da Silva, SVD
Fr. José Antunes da Silva, presently the provincial superior of Portugal (POR), is elected to the General Council. He is the fifth councillor to be elected, thus completing the elections to the General Council.
Fr. Da Silva was born on December 5, 1957, at Maxial da Campo, Sarzedas in Portugal. His father is João Nunes da Silva. His mother, Esperança Antunes de Almeida, passed away in 2005. He has a brother.
After his primary and secondary schooling at Maxial da Campo and Tortosendo, he joined the SVD novitiate at Fátima in 1975 and made his first vows on September 26, 1976. He studied philosophy and theology at the Catholic University, Lisbon. He was ordained priest at Fátima on May 6, 1984.
Fr. Da Silva was a missionary in Ghana (Kintampo) from 1986-1989. He then did his master in ‘Religion and Culture’ in Washington D.C. from 1990-1992. For the next eleven years, he was involved in Campus Ministry at Guimarães, Portugal. During this time he was also teacher at the philosophy faculty at Braga. Fr. Da Silva was the Vice provincial (POR) from 1998-2001. Before
he was elected as the provincial superior in 2007, he was spiritual director of diocesan seminarians at Braga, Director of “Contacto SVD” and provincial assistant of SVD Lay Missionaries.
–Picture and text provided by Sebastian Mattappallil, SVD
Felmar's Missionary Journey 