Born in Ireland in 1964, Father Michael O’Sullivan attended a Trappist Fathers boarding school in Tipperary County and entered the White Fathers in 1983. Attracted by the call to be a missionary in the Arabian-Muslim environment, he did an internship (stage) for two years at Ghardaïa, before continuing his theological studies in Toulouse. Ordained priest in 1991, he spent a year in Adrar before being sent to Rome for studies.
Then he is asked to leave for Sudan where he spends seven years in Khartoum. Knowing the Melchite rite, he spent a sabbatical year in 2001 at the Orthodox monastery of Balamand in Lebanon, where he attended oriental liturgy classes in Arabic. He is also several times a vicar priest in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Yemen.
In 2003 back in Rome, he defended a thesis in Islamology. He is then sent to Jerusalem. During his ten years in the Holy City, he was appointed director of the House of Abraham and representative of Catholic Relief in the Holy Land. Then for four years in Dubai, in the Vicariate of Southern Arabia, he was the diocesan treasurer in this vast diocese. His interests in music led him to sing with choirs in Jerusalem and Dubai. He is happy to serve the Church of Algeria as rector of one of its most beautiful and symbolic places, the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa.
Taken from « Notre-Dame d’Afrique – Lettre aux amis – Février 2018 »
Translation: webmaster