Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix
It has been a year now since Bishop Thomas Olmsted, emeritus has been retired as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. During that time he has been active throughout the Diocese but more than any place else, he has been active on the Indian Reservations.
Initially, he was going out to St. Francis of Assisi, Salt River Mission for the 12 noon Mass every Sunday. He became such a regular there that the Mission decided to build a confessional for him to use in the area that was/is the bell tower. It took months to put together a plan on how they were going to utilize the space and then another couple of months to buy the drywall and other supplies to build it out. Bishop now has his confessional!! A bench will be added later for those who wish to confess face to face. I have attached pictures.
When Fr. Antony Tinker FHS went on a three month sabbatical (May, June & July 2023), it was Bishop Olmsted who said he would like to help and offered to celebrate two Sunday Liturgies each week. I had him scheduled every Sunday at our Our Lady of Victory Mission and St. Francis of Assisi Salt River. Our Lady of Victory Mission is a very small Mission and the Parish Chief contacted me prior to Bishop’s first Mass out there and she was so concerned and nervous about having Bishop Olmsted and asked me to change the schedule and have him go somewhere else. I told her that I could not do that and not to worry that everything would be fine. Sure enough, two weeks later I met up with her and I asked how Masses were going with Bishop Olmsted and she could not say enough about how wonderful he is and how blessed they all felt having him coming to their little Mission every Sunday.
Fr. Antony is now back from his sabbatical and we are still utilizing the services of Bishop Olmsted. He has requested at least one Sunday Liturgy every week somewhere on the Reservation. He has now been out to each of our Missions and he was most recently at St. Francis of Assisi AkChin this past Sunday and I have attached pictures from that visit. As you can see from the pictures, he spends time after Mass visiting with the members and not just leaving right away. In fact, he spent just a wee bit too long at the 10am Mass at St. John the Baptist Mission visiting with people that he arrived a few minutes late for the Noon Mass at St. Francis AkChin. He is so kind, warm and humble that he wanted to make sure that he visited with all who wanted to see him after Mass even if it made him a little late. That is why he is so loved on the Reservation.
