Jan Paul Lenga

Jan Paul Lenga (born March 28, 1950, in Horodok, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine) is a former Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Karaganda.

Biography

His family moved to Latvia, where the former chaplain, worked on the railroad. Lenga spent one-year novitiate in the Marian Order, spent a week visiting a monk and spiritual mentor. From Latvia, moved to Kaunas, Lithuania where there was one of only two Catholic seminaries in the then Soviet Union. He graduated from the seminary secretly, and he was ordained in secret on May 28, 1980 by Bishop Vincentas Sladkevicius. In 1981 he arrived in Kazakhstan, where he performed pastoral ministry for 10 years. Lenga was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, and Titular Bishop of Arba on April 13, 1991. He was consecrated a bishop on May 28, 1991. Lenga was appointed bishop of Karaganda on August 6, 1999. He received the personal title of Archbishop on May 17, 2003.

On February 5, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Lenga, which he filed in accordance with canon 401 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law. Diocesan bishop, who by ill health or some other compelling reason, would not fully able to discharge their duties, are urged to submit his resignation from it. Lenga was appointed as the successor to the apostolic administrator of Atyrau Bishop Janusz Kaleta. At this time, the retired archbishop is a resident of the monastic houses of the Congregation of the priests.

Awards

Jan Paul Lenga was awarded the Commander's Cross of Merit and the Order of the Republic of Poland. The awards were presented to Archbishop Jan Paul Lenga on September 2, 2011. On behalf of the President of Poland did Governor Peter Flerek Wielkopolska.