File 57 - Promotion and Fundraising: Mite Box

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.