Claudio DZ — Fr. Claudio Dalla Zuanna, SCJ, pictured in his office in Rome. Off to the left you can see one of the African prints that adorned his office. "Africa is where I learned to be a priest," he said.

SCJ returns as bishop to the place he “learned to be a priest”

Today, June 29, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI appointed Fr. Claudio Dalla Zuanna, SCJ, as archbishop of Beira in Mozambique. Fr. Claudio, 53, is currently vice-general of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. He replaces Archbishop Pedro Goncalves, 75, who headed the Archdiocese of Beira since 1976 and submitted his resignation in January.

Fr. Claudio ministered in Mozambique from 1985 until he was elected to the General Council for the first time in 2003. He was reelected to his current term in 2009.

“When I came to council I brought my experience of the Church and congregation from Africa,” he said in an interview in 2011. “Almost all of my priesthood had been in Africa, it is where I learned to be a priest.”

A member of the North Italian Province, Fr. Claudio served in pastoral ministry in remote areas of Mozambique, as well as in formation and province administration.

During the 1996-97 academic year he was a student in Sacred Heart School of Theology’s ESL program. He follows several other SCJ ESL alumni who have been named as bishop including Bishop Virginio Bressanelli, former superior general.

Fr. José Ornelas Carvalho, SCJ, our current superior general, learned of Fr. Claudio’s appointment when he was in Mozambique himself, where he was concluding his visitation. Fr. Ornelas expressed both his joy on the occasion of the bishop-elect’s appointment and sadness on his departure from the general curia.

“We are well aware of what we owe him and how much we will miss him!” said Fr. Ornelas in a letter released soon after the appointment was made public. “We accompany him with a deep sense of gratitude for his dedication and his friendship.”

Fr. Claudio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Italian parents. As a boy he returned to Italy. He studied with the North Italian Province, professed his first vows in 1978 and was ordained in 1984.

The Diocese of Beira was erected on September 4, 1940 and covers an area of 48466 square miles with a population of 1,422,000, 833,000 of whom are Catholics. There are 33 parishes, 29 diocesan priests, 49 members of religious institutes and 84 religious.

Beira is Mozambique’s second largest city and the capital of the province of Sofala. The city is situated on the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Pungoè River in the central part of the country. The port of Beira is of enormous importance both for the interior of Mozambique, but even more so for Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe who have no access to the sea.