Introductory Letter from New Pastor Fr. Rolf Tollefson

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 is a great privilege to serve you.  

Before I tell you a little bit about myself, I’d like to again thank Father 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 US Government and the Air Force Reserve. Though my last name is Norwegian, I do have a little Irish in me from my father’s mother’s side, from county Offaly. I hope to go to “The Holy Land” one day, but I haven’t made it to the Emerald Isle….yet!

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 old 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 as a volunteer at a Franciscan Friary in Libertyville, Illinois — Marytown — the national Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe.  

Father 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 on the campus of the University of St. Thomas, while Bishop Christenson was Rector.  

I then attended SPS for four more years, graduating with a Master’s in Divinity.  Concurrently, I served for four years at St. John Neumann in Eagan as my Teaching Parish, and did a summer of CPE chaplaincy at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital’s burn unit in Pittsburgh.

After my ordination in 2001 and Mass of Thanksgiving at my home parish of St. Louis, King of France downtown, I served for three years at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and School in St. Anthony/Northeast Minneapolis.  

Later, I returned to SJV and served for seven years on the faculty as a Spiritual Director and Formator with former Nativity Associate, Father Bill Baer, who was the Rector for five years of my time there. I also hired Brian Carson to conduct our seminary choir and to teach our seminarians to sing Gregorian chant and beautiful hymns. 

During my time at St. John Vianney, I earned a Master’s in Christian Spirituality and a certificate in Spiritual Direction from both Creighton University and the Institute for Priestly Formation, both based in Omaha, Nebraska. I also completed two 30-day Ignatian retreats, first in 2008 and another in 2022.  

I most recently completed twelve years as Pastor at St. Hubert Catholic Church and School in Chanhassen.  

Among the projects I worked on there, I helped create men’s and a women’s healing retreats as well as a small group ministry, so I am eager to implement the Archdiocesan Synod’s small group initiative here.  

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!

In addition to these past assignments, I also served with these Archdiocesan assignments: chaplain for Curatio, the Catholic healthcare workers’ apostolate; chaplain for the Office for Persons with Disabilities; member of the Presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors, the Diaconal Admissions Board, the Holy Family Catholic High School Board in Victoria, and currently with the Comprehensive Assignment Board.  

Occasionally, I celebrate Byzantine Divine Liturgies (Masses) at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Northeast Minneapolis, and I have a deep love for Eastern Christianity.

Recently, I applied to be part of the Fraternity of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation (CL), founded in 1954 by Servant of God Father Luigi Giussani. As I look back, the charism of CL has interwoven together all the events of my life by a golden thread.

I love to bike, hike, backpack, and especially to cross country ski. I am an amateur photographer, and I love traveling. In my free time I go up north and spend time marinating and working in nature. I make my own blackberry-raspberry jam and Nutella. I love reading anything by Pope Benedict and about science.  

I am passionate about liturgy that engages parishioners, and sacred music that elevates the soul to God, and I very much look forward to working with Nativity’s musicians. 

I have served on the board of and sung with a local Twin Cities choir, Magnum Chorum, who has performed here in the past.

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 wish to invite everyone to the Mass of Installation as your Pastor on a date to be announced, likely in mid-August. Peace in Jesus!

Father Rolf Tollefson

Pastor of Nativity of Our Lord