Catholic Newspaper of the Diocese of St. Cloud • December 7, 2006
• Cardinal visits St. John’s
Past Washington D.C. prelate shares tales of two popes during talk
• Praise the Lord and pass on pearls of wisdom formed from sands of time
• St. Paul parishioner has poured 60 years of love, service into place she calls ‘home’
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by Joseph Young
Visitor Interim Editor
ST. CLOUD — Bishop John Kinney has determined which shepherds will guide the flocks of the 15 St. Cloud metro-area parishes, and has announced who they are.
Fathers Thomas Knoblach, Anthony Oelrich and Alan Wielinski will be making moves into the see city, while Fathers Bernard Gruenes and Robert Rolfes will stay put at their present parishes while each taking on an additional parish.
The assignments are effective June 28, 2007.
Fathers Lauren Germann and Ron Weyrens and Benedictine Father Joseph Feders are scheduled to remain as pastors at their present parishes — St. Francis Xavier in Sartell, Sacred Heart in Sauk Rapids and St. Joseph in St. Joseph, respectively, which are the three remaining “stand-alone” (single) non-twinned-or-tripled-or-otherwise-clustered parishes in the metro-area.
Last May, Bishop Kinney announced that the 15 St. Cloud metro-area parishes would in 2007 be re-organized into eight groupings — five clustered or twinned groups of parishes and three single, “stand-alone” parishes.
The appointment of pastors for these metro-area parishes is the latest step in a metro pastoral staffing restructuring process — facilitated by the Diocesan Planning Office — that began nearly three years ago.
In 2004, a group of 45 people (one priest and two lay representatives from each of the 15 parishes) began meeting to review the organization and pastoral staffing structure of the metro-area parishes, according to the diocese’s Web site (www.StCdio.org).
The group — called the St. Cloud Metro Planning Group, or the Re-Visioning Church Committee — brainstormed ideas and considered myriad options before making its recommendation to Bishop Kinney in Lent of 2006.
The bishop made his decision — prompted by the decline in the number of priests, opportunities for increased lay involvement in parish staffing and fewer active parish members — with the goal of enhancing the life of the parishes and ensuring viability for all of the parishes in this metro area, according to the Web site.
The plan calls for 11 priests to serve the 15 parishes. Eight of those priests — including the five pastors announced in the “Official” — will serve the five clusters of either three or two parishes. The groupings are:
• St. Augustine, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Christ Church Newman Center will be served by two priests, Father Oelrich and a parochial vicar (also sometimes called a sacramental minister or associate pastor) to be named later.
• St. Joseph in Waite Park and St. Michael in St. Cloud will be served by one priest, Father Gruenes.
• St. Paul and St. Peter will be served by one priest, Father Wielinski.
• St. Anthony, St. John Cantius and Holy Spirit will be served by two priests, Father Knoblach and a parochial vicar to be named later.
• St. Mary Help of Christians in St. Augusta and St. Wendelin in Luxemburg will be served by two priests, Father Rolfes, who will also continue to serve as chancellor, and a parochial vicar to be named later.
• St. Francis Xavier in Sartell will be served by one priest, Father Germann.
• Sacred Heart, Sauk Rapids will be served by one priest, Father Weyrens.
• St. Joseph Parish in St. Joseph will be served by one priest, Father Feders.
Great deliberation was taken in deciding which pastors would be the best “fit” for the metro-area clustered parishes, said Jane Marrin, planning Office director. A “discernment day for clergy” lasting from noon to noon was held Nov. 14-15 at St. John’s University in Collegeville, in part to help priests discern whether they might be called to serve in multiple parishes. Twenty priests attended.
At the Sept. 28 presbyteral council meeting in St. Cloud, Bishop Kinney asked the representative priests for input on what qualities he ought to look for in priests pastoring the metro parish clusters.
Among the priests’ answers were: communications skills, clarity about priorities, willingness to delegate, charitability, ability to be diplomatic, ability to cooperate with associate pastors, good health, and high energy.
The five priests appointed as pastors of the 12 parishes in the five metro-area clusters tend to be relatively young men (average age, 52) and recently ordained, averaging a little more than 18 years since ordination.
After the bishop’s May 2006 announcement, an implementation team, consisting of individuals from the original planning group, began meeting to help guide the transition and make recommendations about how parishes in each grouping can begin working together.
By early October, the team and Planning Office had hammered out — nearly three months ahead of schedule — a Mass schedule for the metro-area parishes which was published in the Oct. 12 St. Cloud Visitor. That Mass schedule, which will take effect the weekend of Jan. 13-14 2007, has been since slightly revised, and appears at the right.
The Planning Office and Priest Personnel Board have also been busy, and ahead of schedule, determining which priests will serve where, beginning next summer. By January or February, the balance of the priest parish assignments for the entire diocese will be announced. In past years, the priest assignments have been announced in May or June, about a month or so before they take effect.
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Pastor to return to his Princeton ‘roots’
by Joseph Young
Visitor Interim Editor
PRINCETON — What do Fathers Ralph Zimmerman, Virgil Helmin, Timothy Wenzel, Marv Enneking, Steve Binsfeld, Timothy Baltes, Greg Lieser, Luke Steiner OSB and Kevin Anderson have in common? They are all currently pastors of St. Cloud metro-area parishes who will be not be serving in those roles come this summer. The eight pastors who will serve those 15 metro-area parishes have been announced (see official page 8).
But what does Father Anderson not have in common with the other seven pastors who will no longer be metro-area pastors? Well, he will be packing his bags for his new assignment a bit sooner, because he knows exactly where he is going, and when. An Official announcement from the Chancery which appeared in the Nov. 16 St. Cloud Visitor said that Bishop John Kinney had appointed Father Anderson — present pastor of Newman Center Christ Church in St. Cloud — as pastor of St. Edward Parish in Princeton, effective Jan. 15, 2007.
Father Anderson was also appointed canonical pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Parish in Braham, which is served by a parish life coordinator, Deacon Thomas Pinataro.
The other seven priests may have an inkling of what new assignments the bishop may have in store for them, but those appointments probably won’t be announced until January or February of 2007, and likely won’t take effect until late June 2007.
But for Father Anderson, his new assignment follows closely on the heels of the New Year.
“I turned (age) 50 over the summer,” he said, “so this seems like a kind of rebirth to me, a new stage in my vocation. I am of course sad to leave the Newman Center community which has been wonderful and supportive. But I am also excited about this great opportunity to meet and get to know the people of Princeton.”
Actually, Father Anderson said, his family in Elk River — in particular, his parents Russ and Anna Mae Anderson, members of St. Andrew Parish there — are happy about the move because it means their son will be closer to their home. Elk River is just a 20-mile jaunt down Highway 169 from Princeton, while St. Cloud and Elk River are 35 miles apart.
What’s more, Father Anderson was actually born in Princeton, though he was raised in Elk River. His father’s mother and step-father, Dorothy and Walter Meyer lived on a farm west of Princeton.
“They were good Lutherans,” he said, “and I have wonderful memories of visiting them. So, in a sense, it feels like I’m going back to my roots.”