Friday, August 14, 2009

ARCHDIOCESE — Marianist Father Martin Solma has been appinted provincial-elect of the Marianist Province of the United States. Father Solma will serve an initial term of five years beginning July 1, 2010.

Father Solma, 61, has ministered in Eastern Africa since 1982. The U.S. Province office is located in St. Louis.

Father Martin Solma (Courtesy photo)

He met the Marianists while attending St. Joseph High School (now Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School) in Cleveland. Upon graduation in 1966, Father Solma entered the Marianist novitiate at Marcy, N.Y. He professed first vows in 1967 at Marcy and perpetual vows in 1973 at Mount Saint John in Dayton. Father Solma was ordained in 1978 in Dayton.

He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and English in 1971 from the University of Dayton and a master’s degree in religious education in 1975 from Boston College. In 1979 Father Solma received a master of divinity degree from the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto.

Father Solma taught at Purcell Marian High School in Cincinnati  from1979-1982. He then spent more than 25 years of ministry in Eastern Africa serving as assistant novice director at the Marianist novitiate in Ekpoma, Nigeria. He became director of the Marianist novitiate in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985.

Father Solma was appointed regional superior for the Marianists’ Region of Eastern Africa in 1992, a position he held until 1998. He served five years (1999-2004) as director of the Marianist scholasticate in Nairobi before being appointed district superior of Eastern Africa in 2004. Father Solma currently serves as director of the Marianist scholasticate and at Our Lady of Nazareth Primary School in Nairobi where he has been actively involved in the school’s development for more than 13 years.