Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- August 16, 2006 The rector and president of Sacred Heart Major Seminary has been named acting director of the financially troubled Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, Cardinal Adam Maida announced Thursday.

The Rev. Steven Boguslawski's order, the Order of Preachers-Dominican, was transferring him from Detroit to a new position in Washington, and he agreed to assume the temporary position at the cultural and educational center.

"Now just seemed like the right time to make a change," Maida said. "Father Boguslawski has done an outstanding job at the seminary and we will all miss him. The center will benefit greatly from his proven leadership abilities -- his energy and expertise."

The center, dedicated to the late, beloved Pope, is running a debt that earlier this year was said to total $36 million. The Archdiocese of Detroit extended $17 million in financing to help establish the center, and helped secure an additional loan of $23 million.

"The center has an array of longstanding friends, as well as a promising future with a perennially relevant message," Boguslowski said. "Under the strong leadership of Cardinal Maida, Archbishop Donald Wuerl (of Washington, D.C.), the executive board, and the trustees, we shall see the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center engage an array of strategic partnerships fulfilling its mission with ever greater scope and intensity for the service of the whole Church."

Cardinal Maida is expected to appoint a new rector of the seminary before classes begin later this summer, and a permanent director of the Pope John II Cultural Center at a later date.