Archbishop Rrok Gjonlleshaj

Archbishop Rrok Gjonlleshaj was born on February 10, 1961, in Velež, SFR Yugoslavia, today Velezha, Kosovo. Before that office, he was the Bishop of Bar since 2016. After the end of his elementary studies in his native city, Rrok Gjonlleshaj studied philosophy and theology in Rijeka and received on 1 August 1987, the sacrament of Holy Orders for the Apostolic Administration of Prizren. He then worked in several parishes as a vicar and after as a pastor, most of them in Pristina. Gjonlleshaj was parish priest of the St. Anthony parish in Pristina as well as treasurer of the Apostolic Administration of Prizren. He was also the director of Radio Marija in Albanian and a contributor to the Drita religious-cultural show. On 5 April 2016, he was appointed by Pope Francis as Archbishop of Bar. His episcopal ordination was performed by his predecessor Zef Gashi, SDB on 14 May of the same year and the co-consecrators were the Apostolic Nuncio in Slovenia, Archbishop Juliusz Janusz, and the Apostolic Administrator of Prizren, Dodë Gjergji.