Diocese to have new vicar general

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SALT LAKE CITY — On Aug. 1 Father John Evans, currently pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Cottonwood Heights, will assume the office of vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City upon the retirement of Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, who has been in the position since 2011.

Fr. Evans’ experiences over the years have helped prepare him for this position, he said.

A cradle Catholic born into a military family, Fr. Evans first came to Utah when his father, Alfred, was assigned to Hill Air Force Base. Young John went to school here from the fifth to ninth grade and served as an altar boy at the base. When his father took an assignment in Alaska, Fr. Evans completed high school there. He then attended the University of Utah, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in economics.

Following university, Fr. Evans, whose computer knowledge was entirely self-taught, was unexpectedly offered a computer programming position by a medical laser company. He went on to work for Franklin Quest as a specialized statistical programmer. During those years he attended the St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center in Salt Lake City and began to grow in his faith.

One day he was praying in the church and started to feel called to the priesthood, he said. “That was not my plan; I always planned to get married and have kids. I eventually decided to discern it. It took about a year, but the peace of the Holy Spirit is what gave me the confirmation I needed to pursue it.”

After attending a vocation weekend with the Dominicans in California, Fr. Evans decided to enter the order’s novitiate in August 1996. He was ordained a priest in 2004, and assigned as a campus minister at Saint Thomas More University Parish in Eugene, Ore. In 2007, he was assigned to Saint Dominic Church and School in Los Angeles.

At one point Fr. Evans decided to apply to become a miliary chaplain, but during that process he began to ponder the great need for priests in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Shortly after he reached out to diocesan officials, he was invited to an interview with Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, who was then the vicar general.

Msgr. Fitzgerald “was very excited that I was asking about the diocese and showing interest in possibly coming,” he recalled. “When I flew out to that interview, he asked me, ‘So, when can you come?’”

After the interview with Msgr. Fitzgerald, the decision to leave the Dominican order came easily, Fr. Evans said. “I’ve always valued and appreciated my time with the Dominicans. In some ways, I’ll forever be a Dominican, but I left them because of the priest shortage here, because I preferred to be more independent, and I wanted to be closer to home as my parents aged so I could be a support to them.”

Upon returning to Utah, he was assigned to St. Rose of Lima Parish in Layton, his family’s home parish. He served as parish administrator there for a few months before being assigned as pastor at St. Andrew Parish in Riverton. Fr. Evans was initially given an exclaustration (leave of absence) from the Dominican order for three years, then received the approval to be incardinated into the diocese in August 2014.

During Fr. Evans’ first years serving in the diocese, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City and now Archbishop of Santa Fe, made use of his background and skills and assigned him to several financial boards, he said. Then, when the financial challenges of expanding the parish center at St. Thomas More Parish became problematic, Bishop Wester called on Fr. Evans and asked him to be pastor there. He has served in that capacity for the past 10 years.

“St. Thomas More has been a great love,” he said. “Every assignment has its blessings and its challenges, and the blessings here are the people, the whole life of St. Thomas More in the community. It’s a real blessing.”

The news that he would be appointed as vicar general came to Fr. Evans somewhat unexpectedly, he said. Last year, while attending a confirmation dinner, Bishop Oscar A. Solis mentioned to Fr. Evans that he would be the next vicar general.

‘It’s an honor to be asked to do a job like this but it’s a challenge too,” Fr. Evans said. “The work of the vicar general, although it’s seen as completely administrative, there is a pastoralness to it, just like in the tribunal or other offices of administration, where we’re affecting the good of the lives of the people of God, and of the priests and the employees of the diocese.”

“I’m happy to come and try to help,” he said. “Please pray that I do a good job, that I can serve the bishop and the people in the diocese, and be a great support to our priests.”

Fr. Evans succeeds Msgr. Bircumshaw, who has served in the position for 13 years and will retire on July 31.

 “I am confident that Fr. John Evans will make a wonderful vicar general,” Msgr. Bircumshaw said. “He is a good, dedicated and holy priest. He has many skills in management and accounting that most priests do not come to priesthood with, which skills will assist him well in the administration of the diocese – especially in managing the overall budget and coordinating the oversight and development of the lay and clerical staff at the Pastoral Center. He relates well to a wide variety of theological views of the Church and has a good sense of humor. He is mature and has a professional but warm approach to ministry and is respected by his fellow priests. With the grace of office promised to him in his role as the bishop’s vicar, he should ‘soar as on eagle’s wings.’”