John Fogarty (priest)

John Fogarty, C.S.Sp. (born 9 April 1952) is an Irish Catholic priest, currently the 24th Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, commonly known as the Spiritans.

Biography

Fogarty was born 9 April 1952 in Finglas, Dublin, and educated at St Vincent's CBS, Glasnevin. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree (Physics and Mathematical Physics) in 1976 at the University College Dublin(NUI). After graduation, he entered the Spiritans and professed his final religious vows on 2 October 1979. He was ordained a priest on 27 September 1981.

After his ordination, Fogarty studied at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, where he obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1982. Following this, he served in a parish of the Diocese of Kumasi in Ghana until 1986. For three years after that first assignment, he was on the Provincial Council in Dublin. He served as Rector of the Spiritan Institute of Philosophy in Ejisu, Ghana from 1990 to 1994. In 1994, Fogarty returned to Ireland, serving as Assistant Provincial Superior until 1998, whereupon he served as First Assistant to the Superior General in Rome until 2004. In 2005, he was appointed Director of the Spiritan Center at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

In June 2009, he was elected provincial of the American Province of the congregation. He had been re-elected for a second term shortly before his election as Superior General at the General Chapter of the congregation assembled at Bagamoyo, Tanzania.