Two parishes bid farewell to Holy Cross, Vincentian priests

By Ambria Hammel | May 7, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Two Phoenix parishes will be missing a very special presence starting this summer.

The Holy Cross priests serving St. Gregory Parish and the Vincentian priests at St. Vincent de Paul Parish will end their decades-long service to the communities July 1.

They’ve been working with parishioners and the two diocesan priests who will replace them to ease the transition.

The move comes at the discretion of their respective orders and is the result of dwindling vocation numbers and the ethnic makeup of the newly ordained.

“We knew we had to draw back because of numbers,” said Vincentian Father Jeff Harvey, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul.

Fr. Harvey, who also sits on his order’s provincial council,  knew it was part of the council’s five-year plan to withdraw from one parish.

Vincentians currently serve at four parishes throughout the western United States — including only one in Phoenix. All of them are predominately Hispanic parishes. St. Vincent de Paul saw vast growth, particularly in Hispanic parishioners, since Fr. Harvey’s arrival six years ago.

Priests offered one Spanish Mass each weekend when he came. Now there are three.

Men continue to be ordained as Vincentian, but more and more, they are Vietnamese, Fr. Harvey said. That made withdrawing from St. Vincent de Paul practical.

The move is not without its share of emotions for both the priests and their parishioners, however.

Larry Thorne, a parishioner for 21 years, is used to saying good-bye to a priest or two every so often, “but nothing of this magnitude,” he said. “Everybody leaving like that, that’s different.”

St. Vincent de Paul has consistently had three Vincentian priests serving the parish for its 52-year history. The parish — originally part of the Diocese of Tucson — had 1,500 families by 1959.

Cathy Lauer, parish manager for the last six years, has belonged to St. Vincent de Paul for 41 years. All three of her children graduated from the school.

“There’s a spirit here that’s part of the people, but a great part of it is the Vincentians,” Lauer said.

Fr. Harvey agreed. He said the relationships parishioners have with him and his fellow priests “aren’t just with the personalities. They’re with the Vincentians. The Vincentian charism is rooted here in the people.”

That means reaching out to the poorest of the poor and a willingness to participate in Church life. Despite a diverse community made up of Vietnamese, Africans, Hispanics, Filipinos, African Americans and Anglos, Fr. Harvey said parishioners enjoy being with one another.

“The strength is in the cultural mix,” Lauer said.

Parishioners also enjoy fellowship with the priests over an evening meal in their homes. Fr. Harvey visited four families Easter Sunday because they wanted him to meet visiting relatives.

Fr. Harvey said he’ll miss their openness, volunteerism and community spirit.

Lauer and other parishioners will miss the homilies.

“He’s a superb homilist,” she said of Fr. Harvey. “You listen to him at Sunday Mass and you can remember what he said all week long.”

Parishioners learned just after Easter that Fr. Kilian McCaffrey, parochial vicar at Queen of Peace Parish in Mesa, was appointed pastoral administrator of St. Vincent de Paul. He starts in July.

St. Gregory

Some parishioners at St. Gregory have already met their new pastor, Fr. Bud Pelletier. He currently leads Our Lady of Joy Parish in Carefree, but spent a year at St. Gregory in his early days as a priest.

Fr. Pelletier has already made several return visits to St. Gregory to prepare parishioners and himself for the transition. He will become the first diocesan priest to serve St. Gregory in 10 years.

Two Holy Cross priests currently run the parish.

“We just don’t have the personnel,” said Holy Cross Father John Dougherty, St. Gregory’s pastor.

While the priests are sad about their departure, Fr. Dougherty is relieved to leave the parish debt-free. He said part of the order’s charism is to help wherever there is a need.

“We’d go in to parishes and do what we needed to do to help out and we move on,” Fr. Dougherty said.

That’s the easy part. That’s what happened at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Tolleson before the Holy Cross priests took over at St. Gregory.

The tough part is cutting the ties, Fr. Dougherty said.

“I’ll miss the people and I’ll miss our liturgical life,” he said. “A lot about being a priest is relationships with people. You can’t take that with you.”

The Holy Cross priests have formed relationships with the English- and Spanish-speaking communities and brought them together, Fr. Dougherty said. St. Gregory’s has also grown in size.

“They’re a people’s priest,” Alice Fellenz, a St. Gregory parishioner since 1966, said of the Holy Cross priests.

“They’re with the people. They listen to what we have to say. They try to keep people together,” she said. “They have done wonders. I’ve never seen so many belong to the Church.”

Saying goodbye to the Holy Cross priests will be hard professionally and personally for Becky Mosher. As preschool director at St. Gregory, Mosher sees the priests greeting the kids daily and often works with them herself.

The religious congregation is also responsible for expanding her family. Mosher’s son met his future wife when the latter was working at the parish as a Holy Cross associate.

Six years ago, Mosher and her family sponsored a newly ordained Holy Cross priest. The priest met Mosher while working at the parish as a seminarian.

The Holy Cross priests will leave mid-June. Fr. Pelletier’s assignment officially starts July 1.

“It’s going to be a big change for everybody,” Mosher said. “We are lucky that Fr. Bud is a part of us.”

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New assignments

Last month, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced the following new assignments:

Fr. Alonso Saenz, pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish

Fr. John Greb, pastor of St. Joseph Parish

Fr. John Lankeit, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Tolleson.

Fr. Don Kline, pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish

Fr. Bud Pelletier, pastor of St. Gregory Parish

Fr. Chauncey Winkler, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Lake Havasu City

Fr. Patrick Farley, pastoral administrator of Our Lady of Joy Parish in Carefree

Fr. Kilian McCaffrey, pastoral administrator of St. Vincent de Paul Parish

Fr. Paul Sullivan, vocations director, director of Mount Claret Retreat Center

Some of the assignment changes are from administrator to being named pastor.