Pelow, Rogers

• Rev. Rogers J. Pelow, SFM

Born November 9, 1917 and educated in Kingston, Ontario, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1940 as a Scarboro Foreign Missionary. He immediately went on to study Canon Law and was appointed Rector of the Seminary of the Scarborough Foreign Mission Society in 1944.

In 1950 he left for Japan on his first missionary assignment. For most of the next 27 years, until 1977, he lived and worked in Japan where he held many responsibilities. In the beginning he was pastor of a large Japanese parish in Nagasaki diocese. He became Regional Superior in 1956, and edited a small missionary newsletter for English-speaking missionaries in Japan. He worked as a member of the Tokyo Archdiocese Marriage Tribunal.

From time to time he returned to Canada where he worked in an advisory capacity to the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society in questions of church law arising out of the Second Vatican Council.

From 1977 until the time of his first heart attack in June of 1989, Fr. Pelow worked at the Catholic Marriage Tribunal in Toronto as Associate Judicial Vicar. In 1987 he was appointed, in the same capacity, to the Canadian Appeal Tribunal in Ottawa.

“Rog” or “Doc” as he was known to his colleagues had many friends both within and outside of the Society. His early years in Japan were characterized by a deep association and friendship with priests from other religious groups, most notably the Australia-based Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

During his time as pastor of Scarborough’s parish in Fukuoka City (south Japan), he taught English at the diocesan seminary and was thus known to many Japanese clergy in that area.

Fr. Pelow lived with the Scarboro Missions Founder founder, Monsignor John Mary Fraser, up until Fraser’s death in Osaka, Japan, in 1962. He was a source of many interesting stories about Monsignor Fraser, some of these told in the historical documentary Restless Mission Flame, a video produced by Scarboro about Monsignor Fraser.

Fr. Rogers Pelow died of congestive heart failure on Monday, January 22, 1990 at Centenary Hospital in Scarborough, Ontario. A wake service for Fr. Pelow, attended by many friends and relatives was held here at Scarboro Missions on Wednesday, January 24, 1990. On January 25, Bishop Robert Clune of the Archdiocese of Toronto concelebrated the funeral mass at the Scarboro Missions chapel.

Created by F Rousselle Feb 26, 2025

Adapted from Scarboro Missions "Book of Life"