New Ulm - The May 9th emergency meeting, called by Bishop Lucker to determine the best options for parish reclustering in order to complete the annual official priests’ appointments, was met with favorable response from most pastoral leaders. (See the May issue of the Prairie Catholic).
All priests and pastoral administrators spent several hours in an intense planning dialogue offering feed-back to the Priests’ Personnel Board on the issues facing a growing shortage of priests available for new appointments.
The reorganization of several parish clusters will aid in the distribution of pastoral leaders. Parish communities included in the recommended changes are listed in the official appointment notice of this issue of the Prairie Catholic.
Father George Schmit, chair of the Priests’ Council expressed how important it was for all the pastoral leaders to be present at the May 9th meeting. "The Priest Council was in consensus about having every pastoral leader present to ask questions and voice their concerns. There was a great turn out for this important dialogue."
A total of 27 options for pastoral assignments were reviewed and recommendations were made to the Priests’ Personnel Board. Father George commented, "the spirit of the dialogue demonstrated genuine concern for serving the people and a great willingness to accept whatever options that would best serve the needs of the diocese."