Rev. Laurence M. Olszewski, C.S.C., Th.M. ’61

Pastor
St. John the Evangelist Parish
Viera, Florida

Fr. Olszewski is the pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in the Diocese of Orlando, Florida. From 1995 to 2001, he was pastor of Sacred Heart-St. Francis deSales Parish in Vermont. 

He also served as chief development officer and vice president for external affairs at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. from 1985 through 1993 where he was responsible for all fundraising, including The Campaign for King's, a five-year capital campaign that raised $19.5 million.

Previously, Fr. Olszewski was the program director for Catholic Relief Services where he served in Senegal, Tanzania and Burundi. He was also appointed as the national coordinator of church affairs as well as director of education and director of planned giving for Catholic Relief Services in New York. 

His positions from 1965 through 1978 included service as a teacher at Notre Dame High School in Bridgeport, Conn., in parish ministry at Holy Cross Missions in Peru, the director of career planning and placement at Stonehill, and the director of resettlement and Spanish-speaking ministry for the Diocese of Providence, R.I.

Fr. Olszewski received an A.B. in philosophy from Stonehill in 1961 and a S.T.B. from the University of Montreal (Canada) in 1965. He continued his graduate studies in pastoral theology at the University of Salamanca (Spain) and was awarded the Th. M. degree from Harvard University in 1977. He also pursued further graduate study at the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Italy and the School of Applied Theology at the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California Berkeley.

Ordained to the priesthood in 1964, Fr. Olszewski served as a Stonehill trustee from 1985 to 1992. He was re-elected a trustee in spring 2002.