Fr. Željko Paša, SJ appointed as the new Dean of the Eastern Ecclesiastical Sciences

Fr. Željko Paša, SJ appointed as the new Dean of the Eastern Ecclesiastical Sciences.

Since joining the Orientale in 2016 as a professor, Fr. Željko Paša, SJ had been teaching Patrology and Arabic Christian Theology in the Faculty of the Eastern Ecclesiastical Sciences. In November 2021, he was made Vice-Dean of the faculty. After nearly a year of distinguished service, Fr. Paša was officially appointed Dean of the faculty on 31 August 2022 by the Most Rev. Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus Vice Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

Fr. Paša was born in Croatia and studied at the University of Zagreb where he completed a BA in Philosophy.

In 2006, Fr. Paša received his MA in Arabic Language and Islamic Science from Dar Comboni Institute for Arabic Studies in Cairo. He then left Egypt and traveled to Rome to complete his Licentiate in Oriental Ecclesiastical Sciences in 2010. He would stay on at the Institute to complete his Ph.D.

Fr. Paša was also the Byzantine and Arabic Philosophy professor in the Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Science at the University of Zagreb, and he remains a member of the research team of CEDRAC (Centre de documentation et de recherches arabes chrétiennes) at St. Joseph University in Beirut (Lebanon).

As Dean of the Faculty of the Eastern Ecclesiastical Sciences at the Orientale, Fr. Paša will take responsibility for the leadership, oversight, and development of the faculty. He will also act as the academic and spiritual leader of the faculty promoting the faith and values underlying the institute.