Pulaski friar named bishop

A Franciscan priest from Pulaski will be ordained on Sunday, Nov. 26, as the bishop of Almaty, in south-central Kazakhstan.

Fr. Henry Howaniec was named by Pope John Paul as Bishop of Almaty with the titular see of Acolla on Oct. 18. The pope had named him the apostolic administrator on Sept. 26, 1999.

Abp. Marian Oles', Apostolic Nuncio to Kazakhstan, will be the presiding prelate at the Mass in the Cathedral Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Almaty when Fr. Howaniec will be ordained a bishop.

Bishop-designate Howaniec was born Feb. 14, 1931, in Chicago to John and Apolonia (Zdebska) Howaniec of St. Casimir Parish. He attended Sacred Heart Elementary School and St. Joseph High School, both in Chicago's Back of the Yards.

He entered the Franciscans of Assumption B.V.M. Province in Pulaski in 1948. He professed solemn vows on Aug. 15, 1952, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bp. Martin McNamara of Joliet on June 14, 1956, at Christ the King Seminary, West Chicago.

He pursued studies at the Marquette University in Milwaukee, the Antonianum in Rome, and at the Christian Russian Center in Bergamo, Italy.

He worked in formation before being assigned to the General Curia of the Franciscan Friars, Rome, where he served in the offices of the General Secretary, Protocol, and Translations.

Since 1993 he has been engaged in pastoral ministry in Almaty, the ancient capital of Kazakhstan, where five friars serve the church in various activities, including pastoral care, management of an orphanage, preparation and administration of the sacraments and medical service by one friar in a small clinic.

Kazakhstan, an independent country in northwest central Asia bordering the Caspian Sea, was a constituent republic in the former Soviet Union from 1936 to 1991.

The new apostolic administration of Almaty was erected on July 7, 1999, and includes four regions: Northern Kazakhstan, Kostanai, Pavlodar and Akmola covering a territory of 576,000 square miles with a population of 4.3 million, mostly Muslims and Russian Orthodox.