Pope Francis appointed Fr Linku Lenard Gomes, 39, as Secretary to the Apostolic Nun-ciature in Panama on 1 July.
The clergyman received the decision with a mixture of emo-tion and amazement. “Although I am not the most eligible, God chose me for his work. I will surely use my talents to perform my service in the best possible way.”
A native of the Diocese of Rajshahi, Fr Linku is the first priest from Bangladesh to join the Vatican diplomatic corps. He is scheduled to take up his post on 1 August. The priest is grate-ful to Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi for “encouraging me to pursue higher studies in Canon Law. I shall never stop thanking him.”
Fr Linku was born on 17 November 1981 in Natore, Borni parish, Diocese of Rajshahi, in a deeply devout Catholic family of six sons and two daughters.
He became a priest on 27 December 2013 and is one of 50 priests and nuns from Bangladesh to be engaged in missionary work abroad, a sign of an increasingly missionary vocation of the local Church.