The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is happy to announce that Superior General Fr Arturo Sosa SJ has appointed Br Michael Schöpf, from the Central European Jesuit Province, as the new JRS International Director. He succeeds Fr. Thomas H. Smolich, who has led JRS since October 2015. Br. Schöpf, who has been serving as Deputy Director for the past two years, will assume leadership this summer. His appointment ensures continuity and stability to the work of JRS at this time of unprecedented forced displacement, with over 100 million people worldwide having been forced to leave their homes. 

Michael Schöpf has extensive knowledge and experience in migration and refugee issues and is well familiar with JRS’s mission. He worked in Africa with refugee projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda on several occasions between 1993 and 1997. He joined Brussels-based JRS Europe in 2005 where he served as Assistant Regional Director until 2008 and then as Regional Director until 2014. He became part of the JRS International Office in 2021 to focus on programming, organisational development, and advocacy at a global level. 

Hailing from Germany, Br. Schöpf joined the Society of Jesus in 1989 and graduated in 1993 from the Munich School of Philosophy. In Germany, he was the chairman of the Advisory Board of MISEREOR, the agency of the German Catholic Bishops Conference for development cooperation, and an advisor to the Migration Commission of the German Bishops Conference. He was responsible for the development of projects and partnerships at Jesuiten Weltweit, the work of the German Jesuits for international solidarity. He also taught courses in migration studies and served as a guest lecturer at various universities in Würzburg, Munich and Vienna. 

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