WASHINGTON – Sulpician Father Thomas R. Ulshafer was elected to a six-year term as the new provincial of his religious community’s Baltimore-based U.S. province, effective July 1.
He has been acting provincial since July 2008, finishing the term of his predecessor, Father Ronald D. Witherup, who was elected as the 26th superior general of the Sulpicians.
Father Ulshafer was elected provincial during the province’s assembly in Baltimore in early January.
The Sulpicians, formally known as the Society of the Priests of St. Sulpice, are an international society of diocesan priests focused on the education and formation of priests and future priests. Among their ministries in Baltimore, the Sulpicians operate St. Mary’s Seminary and University.
Worldwide, there are 320 Sulpicians, 71 of whom serve in the society’s U.S. province. The priests minister in approximately 13 countries, with the society growing the fastest in Africa and South America.
Father Ulshafer, 64, is a Baltimore native and was ordained in 1970 for the Washington Archdiocese. He became a Sulpician in 1973.
He holds a doctorate in theology and ethics from Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and a licentiate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University, where he also has served on the faculty. He also was on the faculty at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif.
He has held previous posts with the Sulpicians – as provincial secretary, provincial consultor and general treasurer.
The January assembly also included the election of consultors: Sulpician Fathers Daniel F. Moore, John C. Kemper, James E. Myers and Anthony R. Perez.