Looking for a shepherd
Fr. Eric, a good friend and model of the kind of shepherd St. Gerard needs.
One question on a lot of people’s minds is who will be the next pastor for St. Gerard’s? If the Bishop has a plan, no one seems to know what it is. The options that I’ve heard for finding another priest come down to:
- Bringing in another priest from outside the Diocese. Fr. George is a Basilian, not a diocesan priest, on loan to the Diocese. It’s possible that another Basilian or a priest from another order could be assigned to St. Gerard’s. A number of priests currently in the diocese have originated from other continents, Africa in particular.The challenge here is time. Finding an available priest elsewhere takes time, and I would imagine there aren’t so many to come by.
- Merging St. Gerard’s with another parish, or at minimum share a pastor. With fewer priests to go around, maybe St. Gerard’s will have to share a pastor, or even close. The sad truth is just a few weeks ago, St. Gerard’s and St. Jerome’s had shared masses at *one* parish that weren’t even filled to capacity. This disappoints me, considering these two parishes are two of the largest in town. I can’t see this happening except maybe in the short term. Given the recent experience with St. Jerome’s, we might end up going to St. Jerome’s for masses while a longer term plan is worked on. That wouldn’t be so bad, in my opinion. At least that way a decision wouldn’t be rushed, and hopefully increases the odds of a better outcome. Going this route makes the option of finding a priest from outside the Diocese more plausible.
- Re-assigning a pastor from another parish in the Diocese. There are parishes struggling with attendance, and whose future are in doubt. The St. Gerard crisis provides Bishop Plouffe with an opportunity to make the tough step of closing down a parish, or at least to cut down on pastoral services to a parish. Solve two problems instead of one? The priest is someone well known to the Bishop and potentially to many parishioners of St. Gerard. If the Bishop has to close down a parish in the next few years anyways, this gives him a viable excuse. This option requires guts. The question is whether the Bishop has the stomach to deal with the emotional trauma of a parish closing on top of everything else.
More importantly though, is what style of priest does our parish family need right now? I would like to see someone who is a facilitator, who gives people real responsibility, and who is willing to deal with issues openly. What are your thoughts? I’ll compile responses shared both in comments and sent to me personally with both the Bishop and with whatever parish committee gets formed to deal with the transition. Ok, I’ll share them with the Bishop at least. 
Breaking news: Bishop presiding over mass this weekend
I just found out from Veronica, our parish secretary the Bishop Plouffe will be at all the masses this weekend. That’s good news, considering the mess that occurred the weekend after Fr. George left. The Bishop’s hand picked priest failed to show, and there was no representative from the Diocese to show support and ensure things got looked after. It’s important for the people of our parish to know we are supported by the Bishop, especially since this isn’t the first priest at St. Gerard’s to leave without notice.
My hope is the Bishop will, in addition to offering words of support and encouragement, plant the seeds for dialogue with parishioners. When your parish priest of 6 years just leaves all of a sudden, I think you deserve to know some of the circumstances. May he take time to listen and answer questions after mass, at least informally. Even better would be a time of questions right at the end of mass… any wagers on that one?
Unfortunately I’ll be out of town, in Sudbury ironically for a family trip, so I’ll need you all to be my eyes and ears. Please share your thoughts on the Bishop’s presence over the weekend by posting comments here. How was his visit helpful or not, did he meet your expectations?
No, there isn’t a plan yet for beyond this weekend that I know of. Veronica certainly doesn’t know.
Fr. Hamish apparently has jurisdiction over St. Gerard’s in the interim.
As a side note, I had expected a small committee of parishioners might be formed to deal with the current situation (remember, there is no Parish Leadership Team). I know my good friend Fr. Eric had made that suggestion but it appears the Bishop or Fr. Hamish has other ideas. Fr. Hamish is not allowing any meetings to occur at the parish at this time, outside of the regular parish activities, perhaps at the request of the Bishop. Is this another example of parishioners having no say in the affairs of their parish, or is it necessary prudence?
Thinking of you, Fr. George
A number of people have commented to me in person and by email about how they would like to write a letter or send a card to express their appreciation and concern for him. People seem to appreciate most his gifts of preaching and in some cases his personal counseling during a difficult time.
An email I received today from Ann Ciaschini today is a good example:
My family and I are overwhelmed with sadness. We love and miss Fr. George beyond words. The Easter Triduum was not the same without him, but I certainly felt his presence among us. I know he would want us to go on, to be strong, and to continue our journey as faithful followers and examples of Jesus Christ, our Lord. I would like to dedicate this song and video to Fr. George. Feel free to pass it on.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjujw5uzEtc[/youtube]
Mailing address for Fr. George, courtesy of Bill Kerr, the parish’s web guy extraordinaire, who already posted a news item about it. Please note Fr. George is not residing at this address:
Father George LaPierre
c/o The Basilian Curia
95 St. Joseph Street
Toronto, ON M5S 2R9
If you do Facebook (more than 1 in 10 Canadians do), Fr. George has a profile. You can send him a private message after signing up.
Not everyone had a positive relationship with Fr. George. For some, his presence in the parish was a mixed blessing. Still, we are all human and in need of God’s grace. Let us pray together that our former shepherd is finding the healing and support he needs at this time.
Side note:
I only discovered Bill’s mailing address news item after reading through the weekly parish e-bulletin. I’ve since created a parish site news feed which you can subscribe to. That feed is also shown on the right of this site, near the bottom of the page.
Feeds are an easy way to keep up-to-date on new information without having to go to web sites. I scan over a dozen feeds daily. If you don’t subscribe to the e-bulletin, I encourage you to do so. It takes only a few minutes to scan through the items, and while most stuff in there doesn’t interest me much, every now and again something from either our parish, the Sault parishes or the Diocesan office catches my eye, like the notices of parish priests being shuffled around.
Sign up to the weekly e-bulletin. Paper bulletins are so 1990’s.
What’s coming up
Topics you can expect to see over the coming week, barring late nights with the kiddies:
- Who will be the next pastor of St. Gerard’s? What style of pastor do we need, and how should he be chosen?
- What are the next steps for the parish? How should we regroup, to move forward while also attending to necessary healing?
- How did we get to this point? Where did we (diocese, pastor, parishioners) go wrong?
- How you can send your thoughts to Fr. George
- My own thoughts on Fr. George
Wasn’t today absolutely gorgeous? Our family got our last cross country ski in at Hiawatha in the afternoon. Maybe next year we’ll make it to the church decorating party. Looking forward to seeing the sanctuary in all its glory tomorrow, about as much as Malia is looking forward to the Easter egg scavenger hunt. 
I hope to have a few pics of that for the web site.
Writers welcome
Got something on your mind you want to share with other parishioners? I want this site to be a means for our parish family to connect with one another.
Send me an email and I’ll post it online, provided there is nothing mean-spirited or defamatory about it, not that I expect that from anyone.
Good to be home again
I’m feeling pretty tired so I’ll keep this post short. There’s lots I want to write about, but looking after 3 little ones doesn’t always provide the time to sit down and think, let alone type.
Tonight I was at the Holy Thursday mass, and it felt really good to be with my parish family again. The sanctuary was mostly full, something I hadn’t entirely expected. The mood seemed sombre (except when our kids were babbling away or tapping people on their jackets), yet there was some sense of relief in the air, as if a weight had been removed. People prayed and sang in loud, strong voices. Reciting familiar prayers and hymns together was both comforting and a reminder that we are on a journey together.
I was grateful for Fr. Dan Zorzi’s ministry and presence. He reminded us that we all have our crosses to bear, and that we need to pray for one another. Fr. Dan has terminal cancer, and I noticed his hands shook sometimes when he held out his arms to pray. Sometimes the daily grind of raising a young family leaves Rowena and I feeling down on ourselves, but it was good to think about family and friends and remember their burdens are heavy too.
We’ll be at the Good Friday children’s liturgy service at St. Jerome’s tomorrow morning, so I won’t see you all for the second part of the Triduum, but I’ll be with you in spirit, praying for grace that we would accept Jesus’ offer to carry our burdens all the way to the Cross.
Never again
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
As we celebrate the Easter Tridium, I expect my mind will often slip into the questioning of how a parish in general, and St. Gerard Majella in particular, should manage ourselves. Yet another Pastor of our church has disappeared with no goodbyes and no explanation.
If the past is anything to go by, (think ‘Fr. Randy Thomas’) we will not know the reason for this. Because it is important to us and because we care and we are friends in this together, we will talk, share information and speculate. So the chat will bubble away, like some untended broth in the back kitchen, giving off a faint odour – or perhaps eventually a big stink. In any case, to my mind, there will be little hope of resolution . . . if the past is anything to go by.
Our collective emotions will be all over the place. Some of us, to whom Fr. George pastored and taught so well, are saddened and hurt. Some of us, who had concerns, will wonder what we should have done differently.
Personally, I felt that I had no voice in the administration of the parish. Furthermore, I did not feel anyone really did, including the Parish Leadership Team. I stand to be corrected, if I am off-base.
As long as the reasons are kept quiet, it will be hard to hope for a resolution of any type. As long as the reasons are kept quiet, the chances are good that mistakes will be repeated in other parishes. Whether the administration comes clean or not, I hope we can take a hard look at our responsibilities and ‘admonish one another with all wisdom’.
I do not want to go through this again. I want to do better as a parishioner. I want my children to be proud of being Catholic.
The Word does dwell in us richly. We have much to be grateful for. Let’s take courage in that and go forward.
Remembering the kids at Easter
Today I was reading a book with my daughter Malia that she had brought home from the library. The title is “Corduroy’s Easter Party” and it made me think of the annual Easter Sunday egg hunt that Father George has done over the past few years.I hope that someone will think to organize that this year for the kids’ sake. It’s a fun tradition, and would add some fun and laughter at a difficult time. Does anyone know what the plans are for this? I’ll check and see if Veronica knows anything. Otherwise, we may need a few people to step in and keep a good tradition going.
Update Wed March 19. Yay for Nicole Dugas and Mike Creedon. They’ve taken up the challenge of organizing the Easter egg hunt this year. Nicole’s friends and brother Mark are taking care of stuffing the eggs with goodies, but more help is needed on Sunday at the 11 am mass to hide them and clean up afterwards. If anyone cares to join them, leave a comment here or see Nicole after mass in the parish hall on Sunday.
Update on Holy Week masses
I’ve sent an email to Veronica, the parish secretary to email me when plans for the Holy Week masses are finalized. Last I heard from Sheila Shannon is that a retired priest will be celebrating Holy Week with us. Information will also be posted on the St. Gerard parish web site.
UPDATE Fri Mar 21: If the thought of confessions on Holy Saturday made you go hmmm, you were right. Fr. Hamish told me this morning there was a misprint in the bulletin. Guess I should have gone with my instincts!
UPDATE Tues Mar 18: There are no confessions at St. Gerard for Holy Week. I called St. Jerome’s parish at confessions are available there this Saturday at 4:00 pm. If there are other times this week at other parishes, please post them in the comments. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is now until 10 pm instead of midnight.
UPDATE Mon Mar 17: We now have a priest and so all services will be at St. Gerard’s. Father Dan Zorzi has agreed to come. The only change will be that the Easter Vigil will be at 7:00 pm instead of 8:30 pm. Here is the updated schedule:
Holy Thursday : March 20
There are NO DAYTIME MASSES on Holy Thursday
7:00 pm : Solemn Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of Repose until 10 pm.
Good Friday : March 21
3:00 pm : Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord
Holy Saturday : March 22
10:00 am : Practice for Easter Vigil – servers, etc.
11:00 am : Church Decorating Party – come out and help prepare our sacred space for the Easter celebrations. All are welcome and lunch will be served!
7:00 pm : Easter Vigil Liturgy and First Mass of Easter
Easter Sunday : March 23
Masses : 9:00 am and 11:00 am
Easter egg hunt at 11:00 am mass – bring out the kids!
How has the news affected you?
I’ll share my own thoughts shortly (all my spare time today has been taken setting up this blog – lots of postings to come), but first I wanted to give people a place to work through their feelings and emotions with others. Sadly, there aren’t a lot of options for this (yet).
Just click on the Leave a comment… link on any post to share your thoughts and feelings.
