Msgr. Lenz to end 30 years directing black and Indian mission work

Published: 2007-01-05

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Msgr. Paul A. Lenz is stepping down as executive director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in April, a little less than 31 years after he took up that post. He will remain the official vice postulator (a church advocate) for the canonization cause of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, who in 1980 became the first North American Indian to be beatified. Father Wayne C. Paysse, spiritual director of Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, has been named to succeed Msgr. Lenz April 1. He began working in the bureau Jan. 1. Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, president of the National Black and Indian Mission Collection, the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions and the Catholic Negro-American Mission Board, announced the appointment in a press release Dec. 27. The director of the bureau is also executive secretary of the collection and the mission board. Msgr. Lenz, 81, is a priest of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pa.

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