Father Thomas Faucher, the judicial vicar for the Bend-based Catholic Diocese of Baker and pastor of the Church of St. Edward the Martyr in Sisters, will leave Central Oregon in June.

Faucher will return to his home Diocese of Boise, where he will be pastor of a parish and serve in the Boise chancery.

During his six years in Central Oregon, Faucher has become a fixture of the local religious community, serving in the Interfaith Ministries of Central Oregon and organizing several interfaith prayer services. He also wrote a monthly column for The Bulletin, authored two books and organized the ordination and installation of Bishop Robert Vasa in the Diocese of Baker in January 2000.

”These years have been some of the best of my priesthood,” Faucher said Friday.

A jovial man with a quick smile and ready laugh, Faucher, 56, gets a little choked up when he starts talking about what will be his last service at the Church of St. Edward the Martyr on June 23.

”That’s going to be hard,” he said.

And his parishioners couldn’t agree more.

”The whole community will miss him, not just the Catholics,” said Peggy Buselli, a longtime member of the St. Edward’s parish. ”He’s been a tremendous pastor and has done a lot for the spirit of the church. Every time you go to Mass you come away spiritually fed. Not everyone has those gifts.”

The son of a tire salesman, Faucher and his brothers grew up in Boise. At age 13, he followed his brother to Mount Angel Seminary in Western Oregon.

He continued his education at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., at the height of the Vietnam war. Faucher says he picketed the White House during anti-war protests.

Faucher returned to Boise in 1971 to be ordained.

His 1996 transfer to Central Oregon was a temporary one and Faucher always knew he would go back to Idaho. He said Central Oregonians exceeded his high expectations.

”The thing I enjoy most here is the quality of the people,” he said. ”They’re alert, alive, questioning and energetic.”

Faucher values a challenge in religion, and said questioning faith is what keeps any religion alive.

Before returning to Boise, Faucher will take a four-month sabbatical in Europe. He will serve for two months as the pastor of the mission church of Kirkcudbright in southern Scotland, and will spend time studying in Britain.

He also will conduct about 30 Central Oregonians on an 18-day tour of cathedrals in England, Scotland and Wales.

But first, he plans a trip with 20 other members of his family to a festival in the French village of Aurel honoring St. Faucher, a 13th-century monk.

Farewell events planned for Faucher include a May 29 dinner and roast at Eagle Crest and a June 16 picnic for parishioners in Sisters. Contact: 385-9154.