Advice for the interim pastor
In case you haven’t heard, Bishop Plouffe announced on the weekend that Fr. Brendan Doherty will be pastoring at St. Gerard’s for the next two months, while we wait and see if Fr. George wants to come back (a topic for another blog post) or the Bishop finds a replacement. He comes from Our Lady of Peace in Capreol who get a priest lured out of retirement in return.
I remember Fr. Brendan a little bit from the early days of DeoWeb, the web system that never quite took off in the Diocese. He seemed like a friendly guy, and I remember how he supported efforts for his parish to communicate online. He didn’t know much about using computers, but there he was in the training class, a student willing to learn. Too bad he had me for a teacher. 
Fr. Brendan is a member of the Congregation of the Precious Blood, so it is only a matter of time before he too will move out of the diocese. Perhaps that is what made him an ideal interim pastor – maybe his time was almost up anyways.
Fr. Brendan, since you are being given a difficult assignment, I thought I’d offer you a few tips, hopefully Spirit-led for your first days on the job:
- Let the people in the parish lead for you. There are people at St. Gerard’s who have been there for 10, 15 years. They’ve seen it all, and know how to keep things running. You’ll keep your stress levels down by leaning on some very good people, who are also happy to lead things, but you have to let them know that’s ok. If a parish was the mafia, the parish priest is the godfather. Give them your blessing and watch the Spirit move.
- Take time to listen. People need to work through feelings, concerns, doubts, uncertainties. You may not have answers, but that’s ok, we don’t expect you to. We need someone as part of the Church hierarchy to sit down over a cup of coffee after mass, to meet with people in groups and to simply walk with us right now.
- Be open and address concerns where you can. Finances, for instance. Who is looking after them? Who looked after them when Fr. George was here, for that matter? I know some people are concerned about how parish money is being handled. Take concerns seriously. Keep people informed about what is going on. Work to rebuild trust in the people.
That’s it for now. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know. Perhaps some other people will leave comments here that may assist you as well. Maybe they’ll tell you to ignore me completely. Probably good advice.
Thank-you for accepting this assignment and being willing to shepherd a very special flock.
