Reverend J. Francis Sofie, OP (Mobile)
Fr. Francis Sofie (1964-2024) was born on Good Friday. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a major in Religious Studies and minors in Philosophy and History. He began his theological studies in 1990 at the Angelicum in Rome with the Community of the Eternal Word based in Birmingham, Alabama. He completed his theological studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a MA in Systematic Theology and a MDiv. He switched to study for the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, and was ordained June 10, 1994. As a priest, he served as a parochial vicar, campus minister, and pastor. In 2021, he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and was permitted to medically retire. In 2021, he made his profession in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Dominic thus making him a “Diocesan Dominican”. He has published two versions of Stations of the Cross: Walk with Me the Way of the Cross and The Way of the Cross: Discovering Mercy with St. Longinus. He also wrote Praying the Mass from the Pew: A Spiritual Interpretation of the Parts of the Mass.