Remy Kankolongo Kankolongo professed his perpetual vows with the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at St. Ann Church in Arlington Feb. 9. The following day, he was ordained a transitional deacon there by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge.
Kankolongo was born in Kananga, Kasai Oriental in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Feb. 6, 1990.
He earned a bachelor’s in philosophy from the Université Pontificale Urbaniana, Saint Augustine’s Major Seminary in Kinshasa, in 2013. He was in the CICM novitiate program at the Novitiat International Buisson Ardent in Kinshasa from 2013 to 2014.
He made his first vows Sept. 8, 2014, and completed his theology studies at the Pontificia Facultas Theologica Teresianum, St. Cyprien School of Theology in Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2018.
In 2018, he was assigned to the United States and studied English at the International Language Institute in Washington. At the beginning of 2020, he studied at the Oblates School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, while studying Spanish. Later that year, Kankolongo did an internship at St. Ann Church in Arlington under the Oblates school of theology and was supervised by Immaculate Heart of Mary Father Ramel Portula, pastor.
He participated in a clinical pastoral education program during the summer of 2021 at Roper-St. Francis Hospital System in Charleston, S.C., and soon after went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a month to improve his Spanish language skills, and returned to his internship at St. Ann’s.
