40th Anniversary of ordination to the priesthood

Columban Fr Thomas RouseColumban Fr Thomas Rouse was ordained priest on May 8, 1976, in St Patrick’s Church, Napier, by Archbishop Delargey, the Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand.

Fr Tom was born in Napier in 1951, the third in a family of three sisters. Upon completion of his High School education at St John’s College, Hastings, in 1969, he decided to follow his missionary vocation by joining the Missionary Society of St Columban. He went on to study at the Columban Seminary at Turramurra, Sydney, from 1970 until his ordination to priesthood in 1976.

Soon after ordination he was appointed to the Columban Mission in Fiji. He arrived in Suva in 1977 and soon began the study of the Fijian language. Apart from an occasional holiday at home and several short term formation programmes, Fr Tom continued to work in Fiji until 1991 when he was appointed to work back in the Columban Region of Australia and New Zealand. In Sydney, Fr Tom worked in the Columban seminary formation programme and as Chaplain for the Fijian Catholic Community.

In 1997, Fr Tom completed a Masters of Literature Thesis on the topic, “Developing a Method of Reading the Bible in Present Contexts of Mission and applying that Method to the Issue of Vanua (Land) in Fiji”.

In 2004, Fr Tom returned to work in Fiji, first as Assistant Parish Priest in the parish at Ba, then for two three year terms as Columban Regional Director, firstly in 2007 and then in 2010. Upon completion of his second term as Regional Director, Fr Tom undertook a six month Sabbatical Programme at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, USA.

In 2014, Fr Tom returned to work in New Zealand, becoming the Coordinator of the Columban Mission in New Zealand.

The Far East magazine, along with Columbans and supporters worldwide, congratulates Fr Tom on the 40th anniversary of his ordination to priesthood and his 40  years of missionary service to the people of Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

Read more from The Far East, May 2016