Thanks Henry Smogolski
Henry has put his loving and hard-working heart into overseeing the beauty and upkeep of our courtyard for the last several years. He has now officially retired, and we are searching for an individual or a team to continue what Henry has started. If you know of anyone with gardening skills or if you yourself can help, please let our Operations Director Scott Baietti know.
Henry remains an active member of our community, but he has gifted us with a new statue of Mary and a beautiful new garden area around her on the east side of our courtyard. We will have a dedication of this new statue on Saturday, August 15, The Feast of the Assumption, following 5:00 pm Mass.
Thank You Henry!!!
Priest Placement
The Priests Placement Board of the Archdiocese of Chicago works very hard to match priests and especially pastors with parishes. As you can imagine, each parish has unique needs and circumstances and each priest has unique skill sets. Priests whose terms are up interview with parishes seeking a priest. The priests then prioritize potential parishes. The Board does its best to match those priorities then makes recommendations to Cardinal Cupich based on the above process. He then officially makes the assignments.
The following are some statistics that you may find helpful in appreciating the process of placing priests in service of God’s people.
The number of parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago has decreased significantly since the early 1970’s when there were over 400. The Renew My Church Initiative has lessened the number of parishes, but almost all of them have several worship sites that need priests for various Sacramental needs. The total number of priests reflects both Diocesan and those in Religious Orders. Many priests work in non-parish settings, and almost 200 of the 638 are retired; a significant number of them are not able to minister in parishes, thus the 303 number who are serving in parish ministry.
Term limits do vary from Diocese to Diocese. Here in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Pastors typically serve two six-year terms and Associate Pastors typically serve one five-year term. There are periodic exceptions of which I am one. I was assigned as Pastor here at Holy Family in 2009 by Cardinal George. I followed the recommended evaluation process after five years and was assigned for a second six-year term ending in 2021. Several factors then led our new Cardinal Cupich to extend my term. First was COVID, and the second was the Renew My Church initiative that we participated in along with St. Anne. Many parishes were combining and the Priest Placement Board was overloaded with clergy placement at every level amidst changing parish structures. Fr. Bernie Pietrzak, the Pastor at St. Anne, and I were simply told to stay put for an extended period of time. Another exception to the term limit for a priest is age. As I got closer to the retirement-eligible age of seventy, the Cardinal once again asked if I would be willing to remain as your Pastor until retirement.
For the complete data report from the Archdiocese go to https://www.archchicago.org/about-us/data-composite.