Pope Francis has appointed Monsignor Arjan Dodaj as the new Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Tirana Durres, who replaces Archbishop George Frendo who held this post before this appointment. Archbishop Frendo has retired.
This appointment was communicated by the Apostolic Nuncio in Tirana from the Cathedral of St. Paul, Tirana on Monday. The date of the inauguration or the beginning of the mission of the new archbishop Monsignor, Arjan Dodaj in the Archdiocesan Church of Tirana-Durrës will be on Saturday, January 22, 2022.
It should be recalled that on the fifteenth anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Mons. George Frendo announced that he would retire. “I turned 75 last April, and according to Church norms, when we reach that age we must submit to the Holy Father our resignation from the office of diocesan bishop,” said Mons. Enjoy in front of the faithful in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Who is Monsignor Arjan Dodaj?
Monsignor Arjan Dodaj, the new Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Tirana-Durrës, was until today the Auxiliary Bishop of this Metropolitan Archdiocese, appointed by Pope Francis on April 9, 2020, consecrated a bishop by Monsignor George Frendo on September 15, 2020 in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Tirana. Monsignor Dodaj is the third archbishop of Tirana-Durrës in the period after the fall of communism, the successor of Monsignor Rrok Mirdita and Monsignor George Frendos.
The new archbishop, Monsignor Arjan Dodaj, pastor of the ‘Priestly Brotherhood of the Sons of the Cross’, was born in Laç i Kurbinit on January 21, 1977. In 1993, after finishing high school in his hometown, he emigrated to Italy. He settled in Cuneo, where he started working. In 2007 he applied to be admitted to the ‘Priestly Brotherhood of the Sons of the Cross’, at the “House of Mary” Community in Rome. On the way to prepare for the priesthood, he began studying philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University “Queen of the Apostles” where he received the title of Baccalaureate.
He was ordained a priest in St. Peter’s Basilica on May 11, 2003 by Pope John Paul II, and was incarnated in the Archdiocese of Rome as a member of the “Priestly Brotherhood of the Sons of the Cross”, in the community “House of Mary”.After the priestly ordination he performed various pastoral duties. From 2003 to 2004 he was deputy vicar at the Parish of St. Domenico Guzman in Rome; from 2004 to 2005, Vice-Rector of the Rectorate of “San Giovanni della Malva” and the Chaplain of the Albanian community in Rome; from 2005 to 2017, Deputy Parish Priest of the Parish “St. Raphael the Archangel”, in Rome.
In 2017, with the approval of his bishop, the Cardinal-Viceroy of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, he was transferred as a priest “fidei donum” to the diocese of Tirana-Durres, where he performed the following pastoral duties: Vicar General, Parish Priest “The Immaculate Heart of Our Lady” in Gramëz; Head of the university pastorate; Second Secretary of the Albanian Episcopal Conference and General Secretary of the Diocesan Synod of Tirana-Durrës.
