We have learned that the newly ordained Fr. Scott Caton has been assigned to serve in the lion’s den at St. Mary downtown under Anne-Marie Brogan. According to the St. Mary Facebook site, Fr. Caton will be their new assisting priest. It is assumed then, since St. Mary will be sharing priests with Blessed Sacrament and St. Boniface, that he will serve these other cluster parishes as well under Fr. Kennedy.
A new priest may be in the free agent mix. It is possible that Fr. Pat Van Durme has finished his priestly duties overseas in the military. If this is the case, there will be two available priests for assignment. Fr. Eynan-Boadu still has not received an appointment.
As many as six pastoral positions still remain. Time to start moving Parochial Vicars from parishes that presently offer only four weekend Masses with two priests on staff.
Update: A reader has posted that Fr. Paul Gitau, presently serving at Immaculate Conception and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, will be taking over the pastorate of St. Paul in Webster. It is unlikely that he will continue as Pastor of Immaculate Conception while serving a demanding pastorate at St. Paul (over 1,000 weekly attendees).
Appointments known so far (to take place by the end of June):
| Fr. John Yaw Afoakwah from Parochial Vicar of Blessed Trinity parish (Waverly, Newark Valley, Apalachian, Owego) to reassignment in Ghana. | |
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Fr. Ted Auble from Sacramental Minister of St. Vincent De Paul (Churchville) to Sacramental Minister of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Brockport). |
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Fr. Timothy Brown from leave of absence, formerly Sacramental Minister of St. Pius X (Chili), to Parochial Vicar at Peace of Christ (E. Irondequoit/Rochester). |
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Ms. Charlotte Bruney from Pastoral Administrator of St. Vincent De Paul (Churchville) to Pastoral Administrator of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Brockport). |
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Fr. Joseph Canh from Vietnamese Ministry at St. Helen (Gates) to transfer to Boston Archdiocese. |
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Fr. Scott Caton to Parochial Vicar/Sacramental Minister at Blessed Sacrament, St. Boniface, and St. Mary downtown (Rochester). |
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Fr. Augustine Chumo from Sacramental Minister of St. Michael, St. John, St. Patrick (Clyde, Lyons, Savannah) to Pastor of this community. Sr. Diane Dennie, SSJ will no longer be Pastoral Administrator. |
| Fr. William Darling from Parochial Vicar at St. Mary (Canandaigua) to Pastor of Our Lady of the Snow (Cato, Port Byron, Weedsport). | |
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Fr. William Donnelly from semi-retirement/Sacramental Minister of St. Mary downtown to retirement. |
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Fr. William Endres from Sacramental Minister of St. Mary of the Assumption (Scottsville) to Sacramental Minister of St. Mary of the Assumption/St. Vincent De Paul (Churchville)/St. Columba (Caledonia). |
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Fr. John Gathenya from Parochial Administrator of Our Lady of the Snow (Cato, Port Byron, Weedsport) to Parochial Administrator or Pastor of Holy Family (Auburn). Fr. Gathenya replaces Fr. Michael Conboy, presently serving as Parochial Administrator. |
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Fr. Paul Gitau from co-Administrator of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Rochester) and Pastor of Immaculate Conception (Rochester) to Pastor of St. Paul (Webster). |
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Ms. Irene Goodwin from Pastoral Administrator of St. Mary of the Assumption (Scottsville) to Pastoral Administrator of St. Mary of the Assumption/St. Vincent De Paul (Churchville)/St. Columba (Caledonia). |
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Fr. Timothy Horan from Parochial Vicar of Blessed Kateri (Irondequoit) to Pastor of Holy Trinity (Webster). |
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Fr. Leo Huyen to Vietnamese Ministry at St. Helen (Gates). |
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Fr. Stanley Kaczrpak from pastor of St. Paul (Webster) to Pastor of Our Lady of the Lakes (Dundee, Naples, Penn Yan, Prattsburgh, Rushville, Stanley). |
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Fr. Robert Kennedy from Pastor of Blessed Sacrament (Rochester) to Pastor of Blessed Sacrament/St. Boniface (Rochester) and priestly duties at St. Mary downtown (Rochester). |
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Fr. Steven Lape from Pastor of St. Jerome (East Rochester) to Sacramental Minister of St. Mary of the Assumption (Scottsville)/St. Vincent De Paul (Churchville)/St. Columba (Caledonia). |
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Fr. William Leone from Parochial Vicar of Blessed Kateri (Irondequoit) to Pastor of St. Jerome (East Rochester). |
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Fr. Michael Mayer from temporary Sacramental Minister of St. Pius X (Chili) to at least one more year in this position. |
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Fr. Mickey McGrath from Pastor of St. Columba (Caledonia) to Sacramental Minister of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Rochester) |
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Fr. William Michatek from Pastor of Holy Trinity (Webster) to retirement. |
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Fr. Kevin Murphy from Pastor of St. Louis (Pittsford) to retirement. |
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Fr. Thomas Nellis from retirement to temporary Sacramental Minister/weekend Mass assistance at Church of the Transfiguration (Pittsford) during sabbatical of Fr. Michael Bausch. |
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Deacon David Palma from director of deacon personnel to Pastoral Administrator of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Rochester). This appointment may be concurrent with his duties as deacon director. |
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Fr. Robert Ring from Pastor of Our Lady of the Lakes (Dundee, Naples, Penn Yan, Prattsburgh, Rushville, Stanley) to Pastor of St. Louis (Pittsford). |
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Fr. Laurence Tracy from Sacramental Minister of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Rochester) to “official” retirement concurrent with continued assistance in this parish. |
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Fr. Robert Werth from Parochial Vicar of Peace of Christ (Rochester) to Sacramental Minister of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Rochester). |
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Ms. Damian Zynda, Th.D to temporary Pastoral Administrator of Church of the Transfiguration (Pittsford) during sabbatical of Fr. Michael Bausch. |
“Free agents” – Active priests without an assignment come June, excluding those known to be on leave. Most recent assignment in parentheses.
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Fr. Peter Enyan-Boadu (Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary) |
Total: At least 1 free agent priest. Fr. Van Durme may also be available.
Remaining openings – The following is a list of openings yet to be filled or about which we have little to no information
(1) Pastor at Immaculate Conception (Rochester)
(1-2) Parochial Vicars at Blessed Kateri (Irondequoit))
(1) Parochial Vicar at Blessed Trinity (Waverly, Newark Valley, Apalachin, Owego)
(1) Parochial Vicar at St. Mary (Canandaigua)
(1) Chaplain at Rochester Institute of Technology (Henrietta)
Total: About 6 known openings
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Whatever happened to Fr. Mike Brown, Fr. Tim Brown’s brother?
Fr. Mike Brown is a Sacramental Minister at Sacred Heart/St. Ann in Auburn under Sr. Chris Treichel.
See here.
This is good news! Perhaps Father Scott can bring some much needed orthodoxy to Downtown St. Mary’s.
“We have learned that the newly ordained Fr. Scott Caton has been assigned to serve in the lion’s den at St. Mary downtown under Anne-Marie Brogan….”
Probably his biggest challenges will be the unseen ones: “We fight not against flesh and blood but powers and principalities”**. We need to pray for him as the evil one won’t be happy to have another priest around. As we need to pray for all priests and their unseen struggles.
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*Eph.6:12, and my memory, so may not be exact quote!
When I converted, I was quite surprised to see so much moving around of priests here. And every year. It seems excessive. No one ever explained it to me. Older people who had been around awhile shook their heads about it like so many things we can’t do anything about, since its imposed by the DoR no matter how unhappy it makes people.
Is this what is done in other dioceses as well?? To the same extent?? Or is it unique to here? Or unique to dioceses adhering to dissenting ways? It seems to be very unsettling to people in general, and it seems to weaken parishes. I observed in the Protestant community that the more continuity, the stronger the church. The churches that I knew that had revolving pastors got weaker and weaker until they could barely stay afloat – these were churches that thrived when they had longtime pastors.
Fr. Stanley Kaczrpak of St. Paul’s announced last Sunday that Fr. Paul Gitau of St. Bridget/Immaculate Conception would be replacing him as pastor.
What is the criteria used here to move from Sacramental Minister to Parochial Vicar to Pastor? I need a tutorial, please, someone. +JMJ
Hi Eliza10,
I believe part of the reason for a frequent “moving around” of priests is to prevent a “cult of personality” forming around an individual priest (see Fr. Pfleger in Chicago for a prime example of this phenomena). I know our priest is in his second “term” (for lack of a better word) and after that he will have to move on. I believe the longest a priest can stay at his assignment is 12 years in our diocese. This might be a relatively new directive.
Too funny, Anonymous-3658… at least I think you meant it to be funny. If not… the answer, of course, is that to “move from laity to Pastorate” you need a progressive diocesan leadership or Protestantism. However, my question about
“the criteria used here to move from Sacramental Minister to Parochial Vicar to Pastor”
is seriously asked by me, because truly I’ve wondered at the use of those titles. I wondered because SMM and SC priests were Parochial Vicars there, and at their next assignments, they are Pastors. I can sometimes be cynical… I just wondered if that was a payoff for their cooperation is the dismantling of Irondequoit’s churches. +JMJ
Thank you for the clarification, Anonymous-13810.
I’m a simple gal, and it was easier, it seems to me, when we had pastors and assistant/associates pastors! Going beyond such simple “titles”, which were actually job description, just leaves immeasurable room for “messaging”. Aaaah, the good old days… simple, straightforward, no ulterior motives/agenda. +JMJ
Anonymous-13810 You mentioned that there are no promotions or demotions……I heard that the pay scale is different. Do you know if this is true????