This weekend, at several parishes, priests announced their upcoming assignment changes at Mass. As you know, new assignments usually begin on July 1st.
At our Masses, Fr. Andrew Corona informed our congregation that he will be retiring on June 30th. Fr. Andrew came to our parish last July after having to leave his former parish in Portage for medical reasons. He had an extended time off as he was recuperating and than came to St. Thomas More as a priest in residence. While his spirits have lifted here, he has become painfully aware that his physical condition is not allowing him to enter fully into priestly duties. Because of that, the bishop is allowing him to retire early. In doing so, Fr. Andrew will be able to help at different parishes when he is feeling up to it and lay low when his body is telling him that he needs to rest. Kindly keep him in your prayers.
We also announced that, effective July 1st, we will have a new Associate Pastor at St. Thomas More: the soon-to-be newly-ordained, Fr. Declan McNicholas. Deacon Declan is in his final month of preparation for the priesthood at St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois and will be ordained a priest for the Diocese of Gary on Saturday, June 1st. I am excited that I am going to get a newly ordained priest again to break . . . um, I mean, break in. 🙂 Kindly keep Deacon Declan in your prayers. I know that he is very excited about both his upcoming ordination as well as his first priestly assignment.
Prayers, as well, for all of our priests who are preparing for new assignments this summer.