Fr. Rocco Puopolo, SX
Xaverian Missionary Priest
Fr. Puopolo is a former AFJN Board Vice Chair and former AFJN Executive Director (2006-2011) is a Xaverian Missionary Priest. He served for twelve years over a 26 year span of time in Sierra Leone, West Africa. There he was an administrator of the local primary schools, a teacher in high school, a university chaplain, National Youth chaplain for the Young Christian Students and Catholic Youth Organization and director of a National Pastoral program that offered a variety of programs that equipped people for Integral Human Development, particularly peace studies.
Upon his return to the US, he served as director for the Xaverian graduate student study program in Chicago and a chaplain for a variety of youth retreats and service projects. In 2006, Fr. Rocco served as the Executive Director of the African Faith and Justice Network until 2011 when he returned to his native New England to co-direct a new youth initiative of the Xaverian Missionaries, the GYM (Global Youth Mission Services). He is a member of Xaverian Missionaries governing Board, Member of local Metro West and Fatima Shrine Pax Christi, as well as a State Board member for Pax Christi Massachusetts. He holds a Masters in Divinity with Cross Cultural Specialization from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago. Fr. Rocco was a research fellow at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia in 1994. He resides in Holliston, MA.
