2025 Pastoral Letter Announces Pastor Transition

Walking Together: Jesus as Our Guide and Companion in Ministry

August 27, 2025
 
To the Parish Family of St. Boniface and St Meinrad:
 
My brothers and sisters in Christ, all, 
 
On Sunday, September 21, I will complete my 16th year as your pastor. An anniversary like this offers time for reflection on what we have experienced together and where we are headed.

As many of you know, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis is conducting strategic pastoral planning with parishes throughout southern and central Indiana. Like the planning process for Connected in the Spirit, each parish will be asked to take a close look at who we are today while preparing for tomorrow.
 
Each parish has already participated by answering these three questions posed by Archbishop Thompson at deanery listening sessions:

• Where are we today? 
• Where is God calling us to be? 
• How will we get there together? 

The archbishop has asked each of us to pray and reflect on these three questions as we work together to write the upcoming strategic Pastoral Plan for the archdiocese.
 
When I was asked to serve in the parish, it was for a period of three years, which I agreed to in 2009. Toward the end of this timeframe, the archdiocese began the strategic planning process called Connected in the Spirit, and I remained to participate in that initiative. As we progressed through this process, we witnessed growth and experienced a sense of renewal. This was an incredible journey that provided a clear vision for the future of our parish family.
 
Taking time each year from 2010 to 2023, and with the use of an outside facilitator, the pastoral council also used the final draft of the Connected in the Spirit to guide aspects of the strategic planning for our parish family. This was an incredible process and provided a clear vision for the future of our parish family.
 
Much was accomplished during this time, including:

• Forming An Accountable Pastoral Council: We established a Pastoral Council with balanced parish representation and commissions operating within each parish's articles of incorporation, archdiocesan guidelines and legal requirements.
• Implementing Strategic Planning: We implemented a strategic planning process using an outside facilitator from 2010 to 2023 to guide consultative groups through collaborative planning with measurable outcomes.
• Achieving Financial Stability: We achieved financial stability by eliminating debt at both parishes and building cash reserves for maintenance and capital projects, completing hundreds of thousands of dollars in improvements debt-free.
• Strengthening Parish Programs: We strengthened parish programs by integrating archdiocesan family faith formation standards for evangelization and lifelong discipleship formation while expanding opportunities for local, regional, and international service and outreach.
• Fostering Parish Growth: We fostered parish growth by welcoming new life and families through baptisms and weddings, resulting in growing membership.
• Modernizing Administrative Operations: We modernized administrative operations through a 2017 self-study that identified staffing needs and upgraded financial and administrative services with current software and enhanced risk management protocols.
• Maintaining Accountability: We maintained accountability through biennial internal control audits by an outside accounting firm reporting directly to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis Office of Finance and Administrative Services, adopting recommendations and procedures when possible.
• Improving Financial Planning: We improved financial planning by establishing timely budget processes, transitioning from post-deadline budget creation to proactive financial management with enhanced reporting systems.
• Navigating Staffing Transitions: We navigated staffing transitions while maintaining essential operations, including addressing personnel changes that temporarily affected monthly financial reporting by engaging external accounting support to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Addressing Infrastructure Needs: We created an immediate and financially feasible plan to address aging infrastructure requiring serious repair, implementing routine and preventive maintenance protocols while raising funds to begin and complete more than 30 capital projects. This comprehensive approach left no building or cemetery untouched, ensuring that the mission and ministries of our parish family could be strengthened and sustained.
• Celebrating Milestone Anniversaries: We celebrated milestone anniversaries with the parishioners of St. Meinrad Parish marking the parish's 150th year since it was founded in 1861 and St. Boniface Parish celebrating 150 years of its historic church located in Spencer County, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Boniface Parish was founded in 1847.
• Establishing Financial Security: We established and grew existing endowments to ensure both short-term and long-term financial security.

 
As your pastor, I have challenged us not to focus on maintenance or preservation mode, but on the mission and ministry that defines us. We are not a museum — we are the Body of Christ, a church blessed with great facilities and endless possibilities.

Planting Seeds for Tomorrow's Harvest

Are we ready to seriously and cheerfully participate in the work ahead?

Our contribution to the "Go Forth in Joy and Hope as Missionary Disciples" pastoral planning process requires both St. Boniface Parish parishioners and St. Meinrad Parish parishioners to actively engage. Together as one family in faith, we regularly receive the Holy Eucharist and the other sacraments, uniting us as one body, one spirit in Christ.

We are a sacramental church. Your participation and regular receiving of these divine gifts is essential to who you are and what you will become. We must make it a priority to hear God's word, regularly receive the Holy Eucharist and participate fully in the sacramental life of the church to authentically engage in the ministry of the church with our parish family and beyond the front steps of the church, embracing many aspects of the ministry of charity.

This important work will require the minds and hearts of many. It will also require the discipline of personal prayer and discernment, along with collective conversations. These conversations will build upon the data we have collected over the years about parish life — from Sunday prayer and worship to making Eucharistic adoration available to regular access to the sacraments, daily Mass and weekday activities, serving people from womb to tomb.

Growing up in a small town, I know firsthand the importance of maintaining your own identity and autonomy. The values of rural life include faith, family, counting your blessings and knowing where those blessings come from and whom to thank. This is no easy task for any group or association. The values, goals and needs must be clear yet fluid as all remain attentive to signs of the times. We should not be afraid of the precious present — today.

Tending the Vineyard

As you may recall, during my homily on New Year's Eve 2018 and on various occasions throughout 2019, I emphasized the critical importance of cross-training, backup systems and detailed written procedures. I had witnessed this need firsthand on multiple occasions when parishioners' health conditions changed suddenly or they died unexpectedly. In many cases, no family member knew they had been quietly performing routine tasks or serving in inconspicuous ministries for years. Even when others were aware of their involvement, they often lacked access to essential information — notes, computer passwords or phone passwords — needed to understand and continue their work, which directly impacts our shared mission.
 
The pandemic magnified this reality dramatically, creating sad testaments to poor stewardship — we were dishonoring the legacy and hard work of so many dedicated people by constantly starting over. This cycle of reinvention wastes precious parish resources and time, ultimately serving no constructive purpose.
 
No one could have anticipated the pandemic that would arrive the following year, or that my planned reassignment in December 2020 would compound these challenges.

Walking Through the Valley

Adding to these challenges, I had experienced a major health crisis around Labor Day 2016 and was still undergoing speech, occupational and physical therapy during this period. Each year at this time remains difficult for me. Despite all these obstacles, we have been able to navigate forward and make progress.
 
I have the good fortune of working with two parishes that remain open to strategic planning. To date, the strategic questions developed through the parishes' strategic planning process have been answered, completing all but one task: breaking ground for a Parish Activity Center at St. Meinrad Parish.

Carrying the Cross

Throughout these years, some burdens have weighed heavily, including burying more than 70 parishioners of all ages and former parishioners who moved near family for care before dying between March 2020 and All Souls Day 2022, totaling 80 souls. The counseling sessions with parishioners, sitting with couples desiring the Church's blessing through the healing journey of an annulment, those who cannot conceive, or sitting quietly in the emergency department after a miscarriage.
 
Also, witnessing individuals and families once collectively strong lose the ability to gather under one roof for holidays or battle over the jagged lines and disappointments of parents' wills and trusts — all of this takes its toll. While I do my best to leave the pain of so many at the foot of Christ's cross, my empathetic nature remains taxed.
 
As a parish priest, I have the profound privilege of walking alongside parishioners from birth to death — from baptisms to last rites. I offer quiet counsel and share sacred sacraments. Yet inherent in this blessed calling is a weighty responsibility. I am entrusted with the most intimate details of human souls. Sacred conversations must never be broken.

This sacred trust forms the foundation of pastoral ministry. The confessional seal, private struggles and whispered fears remain confidential. Marriage counseling, too, is holy ground. These moments are not merely obligations but holy ground where I stand as shepherd to God's people.

While this burden of sacred silence can feel isolating, it is essential to my vocation. To hold sacred conversations, to witness brokenness and beauty, and to carry these truths with reverence — this is not just my duty, but my honor as one called to serve in Christ's name.

I cannot freely add to an encounter or clarify a conversation, or at times clarify a discussion or decision made in a pastoral setting for one family when speaking with another individual or family, even when the situation is completely different.

As The Holy Rule Instructs

In the Rule of Saint Benedict, he writes that some need more and some need less. I take to heart this call and have embraced this method of leadership even before I was ever a monk or knew anything about the Rule of Saint Benedict. I thank my parents for this life skill. Life is not a contest; the only person you need to compare yourself to is Jesus, and the goal is to find Christ in all people and in all situations.

Scattered Flock

Over the last couple of years, I continue to notice three distinct patterns within the makeup of our parish family. Due to limited health care resources in our county and the absence of a local hospital within Spencer County, our parish footprint spans three counties across two different time zones. Parishioners understandably choose hospitals ranging from Owensboro to Evansville, Jasper to Perry County, Louisville and beyond. This same reality extends to the use of long-term care centers.
 
Serving parishioners in distant hospitals requires significant travel time. When a loved one is admitted to any hospital, long-term care center or hospice, this information is not always forwarded to the Parish Office. Additionally, chaplains at these locations do not always notify the Parish Office promptly for various reasons, which can delay needed pastoral care and Last Sacraments. This often leads to families or caregivers becoming upset when no one has visited within the first 48 hours.
 
Nine times out of 10, when following up with parishioners' families, they had understood that an individual from the admissions department or chaplain was going to contact the Parish Office. Before March 2020, this was seldom a problem — receiving a phone call along with an email or postcard was the norm.

Healing the Wounded

While I appreciate both present realities and future possibilities — managing today's details while preparing for tomorrow — I believe our parishes have not fully processed the losses suffered during the pandemic. Often manifesting as signs associated with compound effects of complicated grief. We have been blessed with new members, but we face the challenge of helping those who resist addressing present needs. This resistance is painful and often uncharitable, something I continually encounter.

Even among the dedicated and talented staff, pastoral council and commission members, and volunteers I have been blessed to work with over the years, an informal communication network persists that undermines our parish community's health. My values lead me to rely on official channels and primary sources — it is fundamental to who I am. It is in my DNA!
 
Covert or secret communication creates distraction and confusion for parish members, staff and leadership, including the pastoral council and other consultative bodies. Sadly, this consumes energy that could be better directed elsewhere.

Seasons of Struggle

Late last year, when the weather changed from tepid fall weather to extreme cold temperatures, I experienced something I had not experienced since 2018. My endocrine system began to go into shock, mobility quickly became limited, and pain was well above my daily average and could not be managed, once again affecting my speech and eyesight in my left eye.
 
It was discovered through blood tests that I was depleting my reserve levels of vitamin D. It took weeks to address this issue and recover. As you may have witnessed over the last few weeks when we gathered at Mass, those levels have been compromised again, impacting my fatigue, mobility and speech. All of these are residual side effects from the extreme levels of radiation I received in December 2016.

A Knock at the Door

Since I missed my planned 2020 departure, I have prayed for an organic way to build upon what we have worked toward as a parish family: strengthening leadership that is in place, helping commissions identify their next chair to represent their commission on the pastoral council, addressing terms that were interrupted by the pandemic, helping commissions experience renewed growth, restoring stability to programs, ministries and activities that remain weakened or lost since March 2020, and ensuring our finances and investments remain stable. (Will parish life ever return to the way it was before the pandemic?)
 
That is when Deacon Mike knocked on the door. He and Joy had joined St. Meinrad Parish, and it was only after he had completed his year-long honey-do list and finally had their home set up that I learned Mike Fish was ordained as a permanent deacon in the Diocese of San Diego.
 
He introduced himself as a deacon and wanted to know what he could do and who to contact in the archdiocese to begin serving locally here in Spencer County.

Preparing the Soil

In recent years there have been challenges with support staff's health — financial transactions needed to be reviewed again and submitted. Infrastructure and routine processes needed to be revised and integrated with the pastoral council's approval. We brought in an outside accounting service, which has allowed us to stay on top of our finances.
 
Returning to the conversation that began in 2019 about having a transition plan in place for a new pastor no later than the end of January 2020 — so that the new pastor could participate in the day of strategic planning that same month — I continued to pray about sharing my gifts and talents in a new capacity. My prayer and ongoing discernment pointed me to share my gifts elsewhere and ask for a new assignment.
 
Today, while I am sharing this pre-recorded message, I am visiting my pain management team to get my pain under control because it has been higher than usual during the heat and is taking a toll on me physically. Health is wealth!

New Beginnings

I am grateful to Abbot Justin who in the summer of 2009 had the wisdom to invite me to share in this ministry for the past 16 years. Since his death in October 2021, I have been visiting his grave often, asking for his intercession as the call for transition continued to tug at me. I too am grateful to Abbot Kurt for his patience in recent years, knowing that I wanted to complete some administrative matters and engage some resources before completing my tenure as your pastor. I wanted to be sure to hand on a healthy parish with all systems moving forward.
 
Archbishop Thompson and Archabbot Kurt and his council have identified Father Paul Nord, OSB, as the next pastor of St. Boniface and St. Meinrad parishes. With my health being my greatest priority, my last day in the parish will be the weekend of September 27-28. Father Paul will begin his assignment here on Monday, September 29.
 
I am happy to finally share this news with you. In the coming days, more information about this transition will be released, including the covering of sacramental duties.

Ending Well to Begin Well

In the meantime, there is a clear to-do list to end well so the next pastor can begin well, mostly administrative tasks and the area dean, Father Tony Hollowell, VF, to review the sacramental records, ensuring they are current and complete, and the financial records too are current, complete and balanced. This is an exciting time for us all, an exciting time for your family that I have had the privilege to be part of for what was thought to be three years — three years that quickly became 5,845-plus days.

Finding Rest in Sacred Rhythm

After my last weekend in the parish, I desire to simply rest. Abbot Kurt is helping make this possible. For the immediate future, I have asked that I not be given a new work assignment right away. I am looking forward to finding my way back into the rhythm of monastic life as I am able and to meeting many of the monks who have joined the community, my brothers, since the fall of 2009, as well as a few of the monks who have been away on assignment who have returned to the monastery, some in the infirmary with our beloved Father John McMullen, OSB.
 
For the foreseeable future, I need to continue to focus on areas where my skills and passion work together and where the surroundings are familiar and systems and procedures are predictable:
 

• In 2014, I and three other individuals established the National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations. Since its inception, I have remained a board member, first serving as secretary and treasurer and in recent years elected as board chair. Over the last few years, the board has raised and invested more than $4 million for grants that religious communities can apply for as they bring forth new vocations to religious life. To date, more than $1 million has been granted through over 50 awards to men and women desiring to enter religious life.
• Since 2007, I have served as chaplain at Saint Xavier High School and will continue to do so at this time.
• In fall 2023, I was appointed by Archbishop Thompson to the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. The Council is a consultative body of the laity, religious, deacons and priests of the archdiocese who enter into dialogue and prayerful discernment on issues related to the pastoral life of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. I am happy to continue to serve the Church of central and southern Indiana, the part of our country where I have called my home since January 2, 1999.

The Harvest Awaits

You face a significant challenge ahead: participating in the deanery strategic planning process, followed by the archdiocesan process. Do your homework and represent yourselves well. You do not want to repeat last fall's listening session with the archbishop, when misdirected energy from a few individuals provided information not grounded in actual parish experience as related to the pastoral planning process. This compromised the time and efforts of your pastor, parish staff, pastoral council, commissions and other dedicated volunteers who had invested genuine effort in understanding and responding to the present realities of our parish family..
 
The distinction between fact and fiction matters. Those who chose to waste the time and undermine the credibility of people who serve this community should know that authentic parish leadership requires truth, transparency and respect for those who dedicate their time and talents to our shared mission.

With A Grateful Heart

I ask for your continued prayers, as I have throughout these 16 years. Pray for Father Paul as he transitions from his time serving as a formation dean and administrator in the seminary. He is a talented monk and priest who brings much to share with you, and in time he, like me, will learn much from you. You are good teachers.
 
You have taught me more than you will ever know — about humanity, and about Christ, who is the Church. I encourage you to continue to live, love and teach the faith. I believe this is the fourth time since 2018 I have begun and completed this message. Today I can put the final period at the end to the last sentence. Yes, this message has timelines and details, however, it is me; details matter.
 
Please join me in asking our parish patrons Saint Boniface and Saint Meinrad and archdiocesan patrons Saint Francis Xavier and Saint Mother Theodore Guérin to help us go forth in joy and hope as missionary disciples as we begin as the Body of Christ, the Church here in Spencer County and beyond.
 
God bless you all!

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