Meet Our Pastor

Pastor:  Fr. John Cousins, O.F.M., Cap
Ext. 101 or John@stfrancis.org

A long time ago in the faraway state of Pennsylvania, in Butler County, in Summit Township, on the outskirts of the village of Herman, John Cousins was born on an early Monday morning (what an omen!). Under the watchful eyes of his parents, Paul and Patricia Cousins, he grew and the family grew to include two sisters, Pam and Jodi.

After attaining the age of first grade, the family took John to enroll in the parish grade school, the same school that his father went and that his mother would one day teach in for almost fifty years. John was now entrusted to the care of the Sisters of Divine Providence. After completing St. Mary’s elementary school, John was accepted into the Capuchin Minor Seminary, St. Fidelis, in Herman. He was then entrusted to the Capuchins.

After graduating from Jr. College, John entered the Capuchin novitiate at St. Conrad’s Friary on the banks of the Severn River in Annapolis, MD. After completion of the novitiate, he professed vows in August of 1967. Then it was back to Herman where he finished the last two years of college, majoring in Philosophy.

With trepidation, the country boy now moved to the big city of Washington, D.C. for his theology studies. He attended the then named Washington Theological Coalition (now Union). After finishing his class work and passing his written and oral exams, he enrolled at Catholic University. After two years he graduated from Catholic University on a Saturday and the next Tuesday he graduated from the Union (finally got his dissertations finished).

John was then assigned to Annunciation parish in Denver where he was an associate to his first pastor, a Capuchin who taught him Physics in high school, was his rector, and then was the provincial who accepted him into the order. After a year John was ordained at Annunciation in 1976. In 1981 he became pastor.

In 1986 John was assigned to be the first director of the Haskell Catholic Campus Center at, then, Haskell Indian Junior College (now Haskell Indian Nations University). The school is located in Lawrence KS, hometown to another school as well. After six short years, another assignment came his way.

John was headed west again, to Denver that is. He was assigned as pastor at Cure d’ Ars church. This tour of duty lasted eight years until the millennium.

The call west came again as he began his sabbatical year in Oakland, CA. He enrolled at the School of Applied Theology, part of the Graduate Theological Union. After the first semester he headed off for further adventures during his sabbatical year. He landed late at night in Asmara, Eritrea. He taught English as a Second Language and various theology courses at the major seminary for the three dioceses there. After negotiations with his stateside superiors, John returned to Eritrea for two more years of teaching.