New Incoming Pastor Fr. Rolf Tollefson in His Own Words

Praised be Jesus Christ! 

My name is Father Rolf Tollefson and I am blessed to have been assigned as the new Pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church and School! It will be a great privilege to serve you. 

Before I tell you a little bit about myself, I’d like to thank Fr. Patrick Hipwell. We have been getting together and communicating these last few months, and it’s been great getting to know him. We wish him well in his retirement. And we owe a debt of gratitude to him!  

I also look forward to working with Fr. Bill Duffert, of whom I have heard many, many good things!

I grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. My father, Gordon, worked for the U.S. Government and the Air Force Reserve. My father, who passed in 2019, was from a little town on the Canadian border in North Dakota. 

My mother, Evelyn, was from a farm near Le Sueur, Minnesota. After she graduated from high school, she attended and later and taught at the St. Barnabas School of Nursing at the old St. Barnabas Hospital in Minneapolis. She passed in 2019.  

I attended St. Louis Park High School and then St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. I majored in History, sang in the choirs there, and served in leadership with Habitat for Humanity on campus. 

After graduation, I spent some time volunteering at a Franciscan Friary in Libertyville, Illinois — Marytown — the national Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Fr. Larry Blake, who now serves as Campus Minister at St. Thomas, served as my sponsor when I became Catholic in 1994. 

In 1995, I entered The St. Paul Seminary and studied at St. John Vianney College Seminary for two years (while the now-Bishop Christenson was Rector!), then attended SPS for four more years, graduating in 2001.  

After my ordination in 2001 and Mass of Thanksgiving at my home parish of St. Louis, King of France downtown St. Paul, I served for three years at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and School in St. Anthony/Northeast Minneapolis. Later, I served for seven years on the faculty of St. John Vianney College Seminary.

I recently completed twelve years as Pastor at St. Hubert Catholic Church and School in Chanhassen. This past year, our School had 735 children from toddlers to 8th grade. 

I look forward to another assignment with a Catholic School, one of the most important ministries of any parish blessed to have one. And I play a pretty mean game of kickball and floor hockey!

Most of all, I am passionate about having you, the people of Nativity, to deepen your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, continue to be proud of being Roman Catholic, and to spread the Word that Jesus is Lord!  

I am VERY excited to get to know…and love you!

Fr. Rolf Tollefson, Incoming Pastor of Nativity of Our Lord