News Release #432

Annual Bishop Lucker Lecture to be held March 11 at Church of St. Catherine, Redwood Falls

New Ulm - The Catholic Diocese of New Ulm will sponsor the annual Bishop Lucker Lecture on Thursday, March 11, 7:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Catherine, Redwood Falls. The keynote for the evening will be Fr. William  J. Baer, rector and president of St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul and a member of the drafting committee for the Program of Priestly Formation, Fifth Edition, 2001-2006. Fr. Baer's talk is entitled, Examination of Recent Trends in the Priesthood..

Fr. Baer was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in architecture and worked in the profession in Baltimore for two years. He then served in Campus Ministry for eleven years in Baltimore and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1996 for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and is a member of the Companions of Christ, an association of priests of the archdiocese. Fr. Baer served as associate pastor, then as acting pastor, for the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord in Saint Paul before his assignment at the seminary.

The Bishop Lucker Lecture fittingly bears the name of the late Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, second bishop of the Diocese of New Ulm (1975-2000) who was a pioneer and leader in the catechetical movement as well as a renowned lecturer of national prominence.

Following the lecture, Bishop John LeVoir will present the annual Diocesan Distinguished Service Awards. Names of award recipients will appear in the March edition of The Prairie Catholic, www.dnu.org. A reception will conclude the evening.

The Bishop Lucker Lecture is free and open to the public. For further information call (507) 359-2966; e-mail: dnu@dnu.org.