Fr James Bhola Lengarin IMC is the new Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries 2023 – 2029. The Kenyan missionary was elected during the XIV General Chapter of the Consolata Missionaries, held in Rome from May 22 to June 26, 2023.
Fr Lengarin becomes the first African Consolata Missionary to hold the position previously being the Vice General Superior. He takes over from Fr Stefano Camerlengo who held the mandate for two terms 2011 -2023.
“We entrust Fr. James Lengarin to the Virgin Consolata and your prayers…. this Chapter asked him and he accepted to guide us as Father General for the next six years,” reads a communique from the Fr Pedro José da Silva Louro IMC, the Secretary General of the Consolata Missionaries.
Fr James Bhola Lengarin was born on April 15, 1971, in Maralal, Kenya. In 1997 he made his perpetual profession with the Consolata Missionaries and was ordained a priest on July 18, 1999, in Wamba, Kenya.
He began his studies in theology in London, which he concluded in Rome, in 1999, with a Master’s Degree in Missiology. From 1999 to 2004 he was a missionary animator in Italy and was subsequently appointed as vice formator of the Theological Seminary of Rome-Bravetta, where he was then Rector from 2006 to 2008.
Assigned to Kenya, he was Master of Novices in the year 2008-2009 and was then appointed Director of the Consolata Language Center in Nairobi for a year. From 2010 to 2012 he was Rector of the Consolata Shrine in Nairobi. He was then appointed the Financial Administrator of the Kenya/Uganda Region in June 2012, a position he held until 2017.
In 2017 he participated in the General Chapter that elected him Vice Superior General, a position in which he has served the Institute for the last six years.
Congratulations
Padre James Lengarin