Fr. Kevin Tumback: Here I am, Lord

I was born on May 22, 1957, the Feast of St. Rita, the patron of impossible cases. I grew up on the farm outside a small town: Eston, Saskatchewan; the second of 7 children in a very close Catholic family.

As a young child, my grandmother prayed that my brother and I might become priests but gramma passed away when I was about 10 years of age, and so the encouragement stopped. As a teenager, I thought about being a priest again, but the life of a priest did not seem that appealing — people can be very nasty to the priest. So, I chose a different route.

In 1975, I entered the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Campus and studied Engineering for one year, long enough to discover that it was not my profession in life. Still, the experience was profound in many ways and offered new ways of thinking and appreciation for architecture and design.

After taking a year off, I returned to studies at Medicine Hat College. College was much cheaper than university and so I studied there for two years before transferring to the University of Calgary to finish a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Personnel in 1981.

After graduation I worked for Hudson Bay, a marketing firm, as a buyer, Altitude Publishing as their Manager of Sales, then into the accounting field where I landed a position with the Banff International Hotel as their Controller and shortly there after as the General Manager. 
              
In 1990, I travelled through Europe for 6 weeks. During a stop in Rome, I attended the Wednesday gathering with Pope John Paul II in the Paul VI Audience Hall. At the close of the Pope’s address, Pope John Paul II walked down and greeted a number of people, I was one of the lucky ones to meet Pope John Paul II and talk with him. He asked where I was from and I told him:  “Calgary, Alberta, Canada.” He looked at me and then said, “The little one, he is the bishop there.” Bishop Paul O’Byrne was the bishop at the time, and when he traveled to Rome he traveled with the bishops from Edmonton and St. Paul who were both very tall men. After Pope John Paul II asked a few more questions, he placed his hands on my head and prayed over me, I was told later the prayer was for me to discern my vocation in life, which was strange to me as I was the general manager of a large hotel; I thought I had my vocation figured out.

Returning to Banff, I found myself reflecting more and more on what had happened, especially as Pope John Paul II only talked to one more person after me and left early as he was tired from his latest trip. My involvement in the church had always been there and I shared my experience with the pastor, Fr. Tom Garvey. Fr. Tom, who had arrived in Banff in 1984, had placed me on the Finance Committee, asked me to train the altar servers, and put me in charge of wedding rehearsals. Fr. Garvey became a sounding board for many questions and concerns. One concern was some people can be very mean to the priest, but I had discovered in the business world, people are not nice to the manager, to sales staff, to volunteers. Some people are just not nice, or as Fr. Tom put it, “We are all sinners in need of God’s mercy.”  Years later, Bishop Henry offered me similar advice: “Grow a thicker skin.”

In the early 1990s, Bishop Paul called for a synod in the Diocese of Calgary and I was placed on the Finance Committee for the synod.  This resulted in many trips to Calgary — no “Zoom” or “Teams” then.  One evening, while staying with my brother in Calgary, he looked at me and said, “Kevin, you’re doing so much for the church, why don’t you just sign up?”  So, in Lent of 1991, I applied to the diocese to go to the seminary to discover if God was calling me to be a priest, and for some reason Bishop Paul, “the little guy,” accepted me.

Seminary in many ways was a joyful time, the studies were amazing and challenging but mostly fascinating — why had I never heard this information before? Still, the greatest challenge of all was that I did not fit in. I was older than most of those with whom I was studying, and business and theology don’t mix in many minds. I had a minor in economics but when we studied the Economics of Christ, I was out in left field. Pastoral Care classes did not match what I had experienced in parish life, and nobody talked about Parish Finances or staff dynamics. 

Still in the midst of all of this a good friend, probably the best friend I have ever had, said something profound that has stayed with me, “What is the deepest desire of your heart?  Follow it.” I found myself writing poetry, waking up in the middle of the night with words running through my head, and if I fought, it just got louder, so I would get up write down what was running through my head and then go back to sleep, a very peaceful sleep. The poems are about journey and Mary and the words, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will”.  Reading the poems over and sharing some of them helped to discern and accept God’s calling, but what really kicked it off was the last words on many of them, “Kevin, will you serve my people as a priest?”. My last year in the seminary was a constant message: “You don’t fit the image of a priest”. Having met many priests and even more since ordination, I am still perplexed as what the image of a priest might be. Still, it was recommended that I not be ordained to the priesthood. Bishop Paul sort of agreed with them but at the same time encouraged me to sign up for the Clinical Pastoral Education at Foothills Hospital. I completed a year of residency at Foothills and then Bishop Paul got me a position with the Calgary Catholic School Board as a chaplain. 
              
While I was with the Calgary School Board, Bishop Henry arrived in Calgary and after meeting with Bishop Henry, he agreed to place me at St. Mary’s Cathedral for evaluation and I was ordained to the diaconate on March 17, 1999, by Bishop Henry and ordained to the priesthood June 29, 1999, again by Bishop Henry. 

My first assignment was at St. Mary’s Cathedral as the associate pastor, but the day after being ordained to the priesthood, I was the acting rector of St. Mary’s Cathedral: Fr. Larry had left on holidays for a month.

​In June of 2000, I was notified that I would become the pastor of St. Albert the Great Parish in southeast Calgary and be responsible for building a church community and hopefully eventually a church building, and I should pray to my patron, St. Rita.

On August 15, 2000, at World Youth Day, I once again met Pope John Paul II and spoke with him. He, of course, had no recollection of me. This chance meeting in many ways was an affirmation of the call to serve God’s people as a priest.

I have attended WYD in 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2008 and a couple of in-between Youth Gatherings in Rome. I also have been privileged to lead numerous pilgrimages with groups from 12 to 50 people to Italy, France, Spain, Germany and, of course, the Holy Land. My great desire or “bucket list” item is to spend from Palm Sunday through Easter in the Holy Land. I have always found that a pilgrimage is far more restful and beneficial to my life and spirituality than a holiday. Holidays are fine, a pilgrimage is better. 

After 12 years at St. Albert the Great, Bishop Henry sent me to All Saints Parish in Lethbridge. Of interest: when I was working in the business world, my desire was to retire at 55. On May 22, 2012, the Feast of St. Rita, at the age of 55, Bishop Henry sent me to the retirement centre of southern Alberta. As he said, it was just for a few years to determine if a future direction for the parish could be found, and the golfing is good. Twelve years later, I am still here.

In October of 2023, I lead a pilgrimage group to Italy to visit the sight of Eucharistic miracles. This was a profound highlight in my life. I had been to many of them before but this trip for me was an immersion in the Eucharist. For me it was an affirmation of my faith and belief in the Eucharist, something I had never doubted. “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Jesus who takes away the sins of the world, blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.” And to top things off, a visit to St. Rita and the Eucharistic miracle of Cassia.

In January 2023, Bishop McGrattan proposed a project for Lethbridge to find a solution to our parish issues. After much research, study, surveys, and meetings, a proposal was offered to Bishop McGrattan on April 7, 2024, which was accepted with a few caveats. And so, my future is a bit clearer now. 

Fr. Kevin Tumback

• Ordained:  June 29th, 1999 — St. Mary’s Cathedral, Calgary
• Assistant:  St. Mary’s Cathedral, Calgary (1999-2000)
• Pastor:  St. Albert the Great, Calgary (2000-2012)
• Pastor:  All Saints, Lethbridge (2012-present)