In the early hours of Thursday 15 December Fr Adam Wolanin, S.J. passed away. Born in Przysietnica (Poland) on 18 July 1945, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1960. After obtaining a Baccalaureate in Theology, he arrived at the Pontifical Gregorian University to obtain a Licentiate (1974) and then a Doctorate (1978) in Fundamental Theology with a thesis on "Rites, ritual symbols and their interpretation in the writings of Victor W. Turner".

From 1979 he began teaching in the Faculty of Missiology, becoming full Professor in 1993, and devoting himself in a special way to the teaching of 'Theology of Mission', until becoming Emeritus in 2017. In the course of his 38 years of teaching, he held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Missiology several times, as well as Director of the research journal Studia Missionalia and the Documenta Missionalia collection, and Consultor of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre 'Cultures and Religions' at the Gregorian University.

P. Wolanin was repeatedly called to be a consultant to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (1992, 1997) and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (1992, 1998). In 1995 he was counted among the members of the Conseil de Fondation de l'École de la Foi based in Fribourg (Switzerland).