Fr. William Michatek, pastor of Holy Trinity in Webster, has announced that he will be retiring from active ministry in June of 2011. Fr. Michatek will turn 70 this October.
Here is his announcement:
It is unclear what will happen at Holy Trinity following his retirement. Will he be a sacramental minister with some lay Pastoral Administrator? Will he be an assisting senior priest to a new pastor? Will the Webster parishes be clustering? It sounds from Fr. Michatek’s announcement that he will be involved with the parish in some way after 2011.
Other DoR leaders who will reach (or have already reached) age 70 within the next 5 years:
-Fr. Richard Brickler (74?), St. Boniface
-Fr. Thomas Nellis (71), Holy Ghost – retiring this month
-Fr. Thomas Wheeland (71), Holy Cross
-Fr. Dominic Mockevicius (gotta be over 70), St. George
-Sr. Joan Sobala (70), St. Anne/OLoL
-Fr. Alexander Bradshaw (69), Mother of Sorrows
-Fr. Frank Faletta (69), St. Lawrence
-Sr. Diane Dennie (> 68.5), St. Michael (Lyons)
-Fr. Frank Lioi (68), St. Mary (Auburn)
-Fr. James Schwartz (68), St. Joseph
-Fr. Charles Latus (68), St. Rita
-Fr. Kevin Murphy (67), St. Louis
-Fr. Norm Tanck (65), Christ the King
-Fr. Ed Palumbos (> 64.5), Church of the Assumption
Note: Please post any corrections if they are needed, as well as priests I may have missed (especially outside Monroe County).
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Sr. Diane Dennie, Pastoral Administrator, Wayne County, 69
Fr. Dominic of St. George’s is easily in his mid 80’s.
Fr. Heifrich at Holy Spirit has to be around 70.
With the number of priests retiring combined with the closings of parishes, I bet we will see priest for each parish sooner than later. It’s obvious that a priest-pastor is preferred, so as the clustering spreads, the remaining priests will have thier own new parish. When a new bishop is appointed, he will simply close the churches, clusters and all and settle the whole matter anyway. If he returns a Latin Mass as a regular thing in each parish, maybe that isn’t a bad option because when I was a kid, I remember the 15 minute “Dominick Go Frisk ’em” masses. Yawn once and mass is over and the door you go. Amazing what you remember…
That sounds about right. I haven’t been able to find any birth information on him as of yet.
In what diocese?
Not sure what you’re basing this on, or what churches you are suggesting will be closed.
What a waste of precious bytes on our server.
I am worried about what will happen to my home parish, Holy Trinity, when Fr. Mitch retires. We have always been a conservative parish, and were VERY lucky to get Fr. Mitch after Fr. Nellis left. When Bishop Clark told us we had to build a parish center before we could build our school a new gym, we did– and then he closed our school before the gym was completed. I am truly afraid of what will happen when Fr. Mitch retires. Who knows how long we can keep our conservative parish when they seem to be dropping like flies.
From my recollections, it wasn’t the Bishop, but Fr. Nellis, who said we had to build the parish center first. Fr. Nellis was adamant about not taking on debt for the project. The feeling was that if the gym was built first the fundraising for the 2nd phase would be too difficult. The gym was seen as something for the school, while the entire parish would benefit from the added meeting space, gathering space and elevator. The gym was ransomed to get the other phase built. Now we have added space, but also lost our school, and lost space for Faith Formation classes because the school building has to be rented out.
I am praying that Fr. Michatek’s retirement will be a good thing for our parish. He has been very honest about his desire to rid himself of the burden of administration from the moment he came here. He is not supportive of the activities in our parish, preferring to spend time with the firemen. Our visiting priest from India, Fr. Jacob, was more active than him.
Whatever happens, I pray that we are not clustered with St. Rita’s. They might as well put the property up for sale if that happens. The way the school closing went I have no hope of a merging that would be positive for Holy Trinity. St. Rita’s, on the other hand, would get the gym we built. From what I hear they’ve had their eyes on it since the school closed.
-Fr. Dominic Mockevicius (gotta be over 70), St. George
Fr. Dominic is my uncle and I believe he’s 88 years old.
BTW, Fr. Dominic said that last Mass at St. George yesterday. He will be saying the Lithuanian Mass on Sunday now at Our Lady of Lourdes on Winton Rd. at 12 noon.
No more St. George’s on Hudson Ave., an end of an era.
It will be a blessed day when Michatek ‘retires’ from Holy Trinity. Although he has seemed to be in ‘early retirement’ mode for at least 3 years now. The parish has suffered due to his attitude, preparation for the Sacraments is all but non-exisitant, and there have been numerous liturgical abuses committed; liturgical dancing, lay ministers ‘giving the homily’ are to name but two.
I pray that when he finally drives off in his big red fire-truck that we will be sent a ‘true’ Shepherd of Christ, who like Father Nellis was always there for his beloved parishoners.
Believe me, I’m no defender of Father Mitch, but I don’t think “numerous” liturgical abuses is really fair. Both the liturgical dancing and the lay preaching have been very rare during youth masses(unless you are referring to that guy who spoke about the end of the “spirit alive” campaign, was that after the homily?). At least he chastised the people who clapped after the dancing. One funeral I attended at St. Paul’s was a real eye opener for me to liturgical abuse.
I’ll reserve judgement on how blessed his retirement day is until I see who his replacement is, if there is one. I’ve heard our Deacon, Ray Milcarek, is planning to retire when Father Mitch does. Could he be making way for a Deacon to come in and be a Pastoral Administrator, with Father Mitch staying as a Sacramental Minister?
An end of an era indeed with St. George closing. St. Stanislaus is the last catholic church on Hudson Ave. It may end up the last catholic church in that section of the city. As we shall see, priest retirements will be accelerating.