File 65 - Promotion and Fundraising: Letters to Benefactors

Fr. Roland (Rollie) Roberts was born in Victoria, British Columbia on September 18, 1905, the son of George and Catherine Roberts. Ordained to the priesthood on September 23, 1933, he was the first priest from western Canada to become a member of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society. Unable to go to China because of illness, her served three yeas at Vancouver’s Chinese Catholic Mission and in 1935 was appointed national director of the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood for English-speaking Canada. He held this latter post until 1951 when he became responsible for the promotion department of Scarboro Missions in Scarborough, Ontario.

At age 56, Fr. Rollie was appointed to overseas mission service and on July 7, 1962 he arrived on the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies as pastor of St. Benedict parish in Georgetown. Fr. Rollie served in that parish until July, 1993, when he returned to Canada because of ill health. During his time in Georgetown he helped establish a day care centre and infant hospital at the parish.

Fr. Roberts died February 11, 1994 at Centenary Hospital in Scarborough, Ontario. The funeral mass was held on February 15, 1994 in the Scarboro Missions chapel. Burial was in Mary Queen of Angels cemetery on the grounds of St. Augustine Seminary in Scarborough, Ontario.

Robert Hymus was born in 1915. He was ordained 17 December 1939. In March 1943, along with Fr. Desmond Stringer, he opened Scarboro’s mission in the Dominican Republic. During his time there he served initially in Sanchez. He then went to Santiago to study Spanish and after six weeks was sent as pastor of Bayaguana where he served for a short time before moving to Monte Plata as pastor. Later in 1943 he would welcome five other Scarboro priests to the parish in Monte Plata.

Throughout his 55 years Fr. Hymus served as pastor in many Dominican parishes. He was regional superior of the Scarboro group when it numbered close to 40 missionaries in the late 50s. In 1965 he returned to Canada to head the Society’s promotion efforts in Canada. In 1970 he was reassigned to the Dominican Republic to continue his responsibilities there. On four occasions Fr. Bob was chosen by his fellow missionaries in the Dominican Republic to represent them at major Society meetings held periodically to review the state of the Society and to plan for the future. He also was chosen several times to be a member of the Dominican Mission’s regional council.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his ordination, he was honoured by the Dominican church with the title of Monsignor as an acknowledgement of his long years of service.

Fr. Hymus died suddenly of a heart attack in the Dominican Republic in 1998. As is the custom in the Dominican Republic, Fr. Bob was buried the day after his death. The place of burial was the little town of Las Tablas, at the shrine dedicated to St. Martin de Porres which Fr. Bob had built up over and where he served as chaplain since 1988. The funeral mass was celebrated by Monsignor Severino, administrator of the diocese of Bani. A friend of Fr. Hymus, Bishop Camilo of the diocese of La Vega, celebrated the ninth day mass in the cathedral of the diocese of Bani.