News Staff Report
A reception was held Sunday, June 30, to welcome Father Francis Sofie on his first Sunday at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church.
Father Sofie hails from Tuscaloosa originally, and two of his sisters still live there. Another sister lives in Massachusetts. Their parents are deceased. They died within 20 minutes of each other on the feast of St. Joseph, Patron Saint of a Happy Death.
Father Sofie graduated from the University of Alabama with a double major in Religious Studies and Philosophy and a minor in History. For his theological studies, he attended the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (also known as the Angelicum) and St. Charles Borromea in Philadelphia. June 10 marked his 25th anniversary as a priest.
Previous assignments include St. Ignatius, Mobile; St. Michael, Auburn; Holy Redeemer, Eufaula; St. Vincent de Paul, Mobile; Our Lady of Lourdes, Mobile; and St. Peter’s, Montgomery.