Fr. Thomas Orians, SA

Father Orians, a native of Tiffin, Ohio, in the Diocese of Toledo, entered the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in 1985, was professed in 1987, and ordained in 1992. He is currently Director of the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, and he is Associate Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute (GEII), where he is coordinator of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. He presently serves on the National Council of Churches’ committee on Local and Regional Ecumenism. His previous assignments include associate campus minister of Felician College in Lodi/Rutherford, NJ, Director of Campus Ministry at Caldwell College in Caldwell, NJ, the steering committee of World AIDs Day of the World Health Organization, and pastoral ministry in Richmond, British Columbia.

Father Orians  has been selected as a Missionary of Mercy by the Vatican. The Missionaries of Mercy are specially selected priests who have been granted “the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See,” the Pope wrote in Misericordiae Vultus, (The Face of Mercy), the document officially proclaiming the Holy Jubilee Year of Mercy. Father Orians travelled from Graymoor where he serves as Director of the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, to Rome. The Holy Father met with all the Missionaries of Mercy to prepare them for their mission. At the Holy Mass of Ash Wednesday in 2016, the Missionaries of Mercy were sole concelebrants with Pope Francis. The Holy Father conferred the mandate on the Missionaries during this celebration. The priests were chosen on the basis of their ability to preach well, especially on the theme of mercy, and by their ability to express God’s love, patience and with an “understanding of human fragility.” Each required a recommendation from his Religious Superior or bishop.