Congratulations to Fr. Robert Conway, C.PP.S., who this year is celebrating the 65th anniversary of his ordination.
Fr. Conway, 92, was born in Detroit and later moved with his family to Roseville, Mich. On December 19, 1953, he was ordained to the priesthood at Mount St. Marys Seminary, Cincinnati.
Fr. Conway has served as a pastor, chaplain, educator, and missionary to Latin America during his years as a priest.
After his ordination he served at Precious Blood Church in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Corpus Christi Church in Dayton.
In 1961, he traveled to Chile to minister in the C.PP.S. mission there. In Chile, he was active in parish ministry, ministered as a hospital chaplain, and was chaplain of the novitiate of the C.PP.S. sisters of Dayton, Ohio, who were also serving there. He served in urban Santiago as well as rural areas.
Fr. Conway returned to the U.S. in 1974 to attend graduate school. He received his Ph.D. from Loyola University in 1980. He was then appointed instructor and later associate professor at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind., which is sponsored by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. He taught at the college for nine years.
Fr. Conway’s later ministries included Hispanic ministry at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in East Chicago, Ind.; visiting professor of Latin American studies at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind.; chaplain of a nursing home in Orlando; parochial vicar of Sacred Heart Parish in Sedalia, Mo.; chaplain to the C.PP.S. sisters in Dayton; and chaplain of St. Anne’s Home in Columbia, Pa.
Fr. Conway returned to education ministry in 2003 when he became chaplain of Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Mich. In 2007, he was named chaplain and an adjunct faculty member of Ave Maria University’s Latin American campus in San Marcos, Nicaragua.
In addition to his other duties, Fr. Conway raised funds for the Catholic organizations. From 1996 to 2010, at weekend Masses in 107 U.S. dioceses, he preached on behalf of the Third World poor for the Catholic organizations Food for the Poor, Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, and Cross Catholic Outreach.
Fr. Conway is now retired and makes his home at St. Charles Center, Carthagena, Ohio.
The Missionaries of the Precious Blood will celebrate Fr. Conway’s anniversary, in addition to the milestone anniversaries of 12 other priests and brothers, in a Mass marking the feast of the Precious Blood on July 2 at St. Charles Center.
“The lives of these C.PP.S. priests and brothers are an example of faithfulness and commitment for all of us,” said Fr. Larry Hemmelgarn, C.PP.S., provincial director of the Cincinnati Province of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. “We thank God for their lives of service, which have brought so much good to so many.”