Father Robert Dow, FSSP
ANNUAL FSSP PRIESTS ASSIGNEMNTS AFFECT GEORGIA-NEW PASTOR
The FSSP parish of Saint Francis de Sales says a sad farewell to its current pastor Father Joseph Deguzman, who has been assigned as pastor of Saint Rose Phillipine Duchesne in Westwood Kansas as of July 1st 2020. Father Robert Dow has been assigned as the new pastor of Saint Francis de Sales affective July 1st 2020. The assistant pastor Father James Smith, FSSP will remain at the parish. Make sure you welcome Father Dow to Dixie and give him a warm southern welcome !!!!! Father Dow is being transferred from his current (cold and freezing) assignment, as pastor of Saint Irenee de Lyon in Montreal Canada.
Fr. Dow was born in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. As a child, he wanted to become a Franciscan monk, but eventually gave up the idea as none of his schoolmates had the same interest. At the age of eight, the family moved to Orange County in Southern California, and there he was active in the parish as an altar boy. In high school he began attending the Latin Mass at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Later, he attended University of California at Davis, near Sacramento, earning a bachelor’s degree in international relations and minors in both German and Latin, with the intent to follow a diplomatic career with the Foreign Service.
It was there during his studies that he became acquainted with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, attending St. Stephen the First Martyr Church in Sacramento. During his first year of college, he began again to feel a vocation to the priesthood, and following a period of discernment, decided to enter the seminary after completing his studies. It was recommended to him that he enter the FSSP seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany, since he was already fluent in German and knew the region quite well, having spent considerable time with family in St. Gallen, Switzerland, just an hour away on the other side of the border.
After completing six years at the seminary in Wigratzbad, he returned to the United States to finish his remaining year at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. Father was ordained May 31, 2014 by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
