Michael Vincent Paschal Rowland, OFM (18 March 1929 – 23 September 2012) was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Ordained to the priesthood in 1953, Rowland was named bishop in 1985 and retired in 2005.Michael Vincent Paschal Rowland
/ref> Rowland was third child to be born to Cyril Francis Rowland and Jean Grace, née Vallis. He attended

St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School, Grays Grays (or Grays Thurrock) is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England. The town which is both a former civil parish and one of List of traditional (Church of England) parish churches in Thurrock, Thurro ...

, and the St. Bonaventure School. During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force. After the war he joined the

Franciscan Order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

as a novice; he took his first vow on 13 October 1946. He received his training by the Franciscan House of Studies in East Bergholt on 21 March 1953, the ordination. He was first chaplain in the parish of Aldridge / Shelfield in Birmingham. In 1955 he went to South Africa. Rowland initially worked in Ermelo and

Bethal Bethal () is a farming town in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The farms in the region produce maize, sunflower seeds, sorghum, rye and potatoes. The town lies east of Johannesburg on the N17 National Route. History The town originated on an old farm ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

. In 1956 he studied the Zulu language in a Benedictine mission station in Zululand. In 1958 he became a pastor in Dundee in the newly created apostolic prefecture of Volksrust, later he was active in the mission areas of

Ladysmith Ladysmith may refer to: * Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa * Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada * Ladysmith, Wisconsin, United States * Ladysmith, New South Wales, Australia * Ladysmith, Virginia, United States * Ladysmith Island, Queensl ...

and Mhlumayo. In 1965 he was superior of the English Province's Franciscan mission in South Africa and was involved in a merger of the Franciscan missionary activities in South Africa. He set up administrative structures and built a novitiate. In 1977, he became the first president of the Franciscan Federation of Southern Africa and

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

. Pope John Paul II appointed him as the first Bishop of Dundee. He built the management of the new diocese, and was responsible for the construction of 83 churches, 20 kindergartens, a children's home, a nursing home, 15 primary schools, 3 secondary schools, 7 religious convents, four clinics and two pastoral centres.

References

20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in South Africa 1929 births 2012 deaths 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in South Africa South African Friars Minor Roman Catholic bishops of Dundee {{SouthAfrica-reli-bio-stub