GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

With the consent of his Council, meeting in Plenary Session on October 10, 2019, the Superior General appointed Fr. Diego SÁEZ MARTÍN as Postulator General, for a first term of three years. His term of office is to begin on November 1, 2019.

Fr. Diego was born in Madrid, Spain in 1979 and he joined the Oblate family in 1998. After being ordained a priest in 2004, he received obedience to continue his service in Ukraine, where he went as a finally professed Oblate in 2002 and as a deacon in 2003.  His mission in Ukraine lasted from 2002 to 2010. During that period, he served in various capacities such as Parish Vicar, Chaplain to the Spanish-speaking migrants in Kiev, Director of Vocations and Formator.

It was in 2010 that he left Ukraine to join another Oblate mission, this time in Asia, Turkmenistan. Until 2013, he became the Treasurer of the “Missio Sui Iuris” of Turkmenistan (Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) and Attaché for administrative matters of the Apostolic Nunciature in Turkmenistan. From 2013 to 2017, he held the responsibility as the Director of the Catholic Media Center of the Conference of Latin Bishops in Ukraine & Director of “Eternal Word Television Network” (EWTN) in Ukraine. In the meantime, he also served as the Superior of the local OMI community in Kiev for one year.

In 2017 he was given obedience to join the Oblate General House community in Rome and pursuit Licentiate studies on Spiritual Theology at the Gregorian University.

Other than his native language Spanish, Fr. Diego is fluent in English, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian and French. He also has a working knowledge of Polish. Due to his unique ability for languages, he often became an obvious choice of the General Administration, to serve as a translator for important meetings. They include the 2016 General Chapter and 2019 Inter-Chapter. He has also been serving as a translator for the Oblate Communications Service since 2010.

The General Postulation Office

It is the duty of the General Postulation Office to study and present to the diocesan curia and the Holy See, for beatification and/or canonization, the causes of Missionary Oblates who have shown concrete signs of holiness in the heroic exercise of all virtues, or who died as martyrs. The office also works on the causes of other persons who have lived their own vocation in some sort of relationship to the Oblate congregation.

Because of its importance to the Oblate mission, the General Postulation Office has existed since 1891. We remember with gratitude the past Postulators General of our Congregation, very especially Fr. Diego’s predecessor, Fr. Thomas KLOSTERKAMP who held the office while also serving as the Superior of the General House.


Read more: Postulation Office


Fr. Thomas Klosterkamp, OMI

The names of the past Oblate Postulators:

  1. Casimir Augier (1891-1894),
  2. Joseph Lemius (1894-1923),
  3. Théophile Ortolan (1926-1929),
  4.  Auguste Esteve (1929-1932),
  5. Ferdinand Thiry (1932-1945),
  6. Francesco S. Cianculli (1945-1953),
  7. Giuseppe Morabito (1953-1962),
  8. Angelo Mitri (1962-1984),
  9. James FitzPatrick (1987-2000),
  10. Francis Santucci (2000-2006),
  11. Joaquín Martínez Vega (2006-2014),
  12. Thomas Klosterkamp (2014-1019).