As we have had numerous priests serving our parish community over the past few months, I have had frequent questions about why it takes so long for a priest to be assigned to a parish. There are several ways to answer this question. First, there is the “normal” way for transfers to take place within a diocese. This is the way that most of us are familiar with. These are the men who have come through the seminary system and have studied for the Diocese of Kalamazoo. Once they are ordained priests for Kalamazoo, the Bishop will then transfer them between parishes. Each priest brings particular skills to their ministry (hospital ministry, prison ministry, teaching, parish ministry, language skills) and they are usually assigned to a parish where the needs for those skills are required. I have mentioned in previous columns how the number of our “homegrown” priests from the Diocese has decreased and we only had one ordination last year. This, of course, decreases the pool of priests that are available to transfer to serve the needs of a particular parish. Hence, the situation we have been in for the past few months.
Secondly, should there be a need, a Bishop can bring in a priest from outside our diocese or an extern priest. At St. Catherine, we have had a number of priests that have helped us out from Africa or India or other parts of the world. These priests are on loan to us for a period of time and will return to their home diocese or order when their service concludes here. When a priest comes to us from outside the diocese, the process is more intense in checking their background and abilities to serve us. Then there is the immigration issue. This is what often holds up a qualified priest from helping us. It can be quite a few months before all this falls into place. When they finally arrive for service, then the Bishop needs to meet with them, make sure that their paperwork is in order, and that they meet all of the Safe Environment standards that we have in the United States. After this, they are assigned to a parish or a ministry assignment. Most people don’t think the process would be this complicated. But there are a lot of steps that need to be taken for each priest that serves in our diocese.
With all of this in mind, I am pleased to introduce the new priest that will be serving our parish as Parochial Vicar: Fr. Jacob Sundararaju, a priest from the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales. Hopefully, you will have a chance to get to know him better as we have had several missionaries serve our parish community in recent years.