Pastor's Notes for May 20

Dear Parishioners,
Congratulations to Melissa Altermatt and Matthew Tews who are united in Marriage this weekend. May the Lord bless you with many happy years. Congratulations, as well, to Kinley Jo Johanneck, daughter of Tim and Abby, who will be baptized this Sunday noon at St. Mary's. And also congratulations to our Area Faith Community seniors who are going to be graduating. We recognize them this weekend, thanking God for their education, gifts, and talents, and ask His blessing on them as they go forth from their families to college, work, or other pursuits.
This last week, we had our annual Presbytery Day - a day that the priests of the diocese gather for prayer, meetings, and fellowship. It usual involves a 'hot-topic' presentation. This year, we heard about the fourth Plan for Parishes. Work is progressing on it, and despite being 'overdue' since 2008, the delay is good as it will be have a solid basis in theology, canon law, and human dynamics. We will most likely experience few changes as we are already functioning fairly well with 1 pastor and four parishes. There was the recommendation of further centralization of services to cut down on the demands of the priests. In our AFC, again, I think that this will be at a minimum. Masses are rotated well. We were reminded longer ago to look at the number of masses in each AFC and attempt to cut to 3 per priest. I stated then and still firmly hold that to cut to 3 Masses, however we would attempt it, would be unlikely. I was reminded that having 4 weekend Masses in turn makes it difficult to get a priest (and I was advised to get two) to cover if I would be away for vacation or in my case vocations events. All in all, the meeting was productive, and more will be coming shortly about consultative phases of this Plan.
In Christ,
Fr. Todd