Rome, Italy, Feb 18, 2012 / 11:07 am
Cardinal Velasio de Paolis has named Fr. Sylvester Heereman as the vicar general of the Legionaries of Christ and Fr. Deomar De Guedes as its general councilor, replacing two officials who resigned in recent months.
Cardinal de Paolis is the pontifical delegate to the Legion of Christ and its lay branch Regnum Christi. He is leading the reform of the troubled congregation, which announced the new appointments on Feb. 16.
Fr. Heereman was born in Bad Neustadt an der Saale, Germany on Sept. 10, 1974. He entered the Legion of Christ in Germany in 1994 and made his first profession in 1996, before his final profession in 1999.
He served as the Legion’s territorial secretary for Italy from 2001 to 2003 and was part of the formation team at the Center for Higher Studies in Rome from 2004 to 2006. He was ordained to the priesthood in December 2006 and was named territorial director of Germany in February 2007.
He became territorial director of Western and Central Europe in June 2011 after the Legion territories of Germany and France were joined.
Fr. Deomar De Guedes Vaz is from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He was born on Nov. 13, 1967 and entered the Legion novitiate in 1992. He made his first profession in March 1994 and his perpetual profession three years later.
He has worked in the formation of diocesan seminarians in the International Pontifical College Maria Mater Ecclesiae in Rome. He has served as rector in the formation center for Regnum Christi’s consecrated men in Mexico City.
He was ordained in January 2000 and worked as a vocation promoter. He was territorial director of Spain from 2002 to 2005 and superior for the congregation in Buenos Aires from 2005 to 2008. Since 2008, he has been rector of the Brazilian seminary Maria Mater Ecclesiae.
Both priests will continue their current duties until their replacements are named.
In July 2011 Fr. Luis Garza stepped down as the Legion’s vicar general and was named the territorial director for North America.