Your Voice — Today’s Catholic Blog

Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo, Sri Lanka spent a week in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, visiting Sri Lankan priests stationed at parishes in the diocese, but also visiting the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne and dropping in on his friend, Bishop John M. D’Arcy. Bishop D’Arcy, who has known Archbishop Gomis for about a decade, presented His Excellency with a copy of “Worthy of the Gospel of Christ,” the history book of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, when the two met in D’Arcy’s office.

Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo, Sri Lanka and Bishop John M. D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend

Priests from Sri Lanka serving in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend who were visited by Archbishop Gomis included Father Danny Pinto, administrator at St. John Bosco Parish in Churubusco, and Father Polycarp Fernando, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Bremen. The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend is continually served by over 20 priests from Sri Lanka, India, Africa and other corners of the globe.

Every year, the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend celebrates its priests who are celebrating their 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th and, if necessary, 70th anniversary of ordination. Each year, this yields an array of priests from around the diocese who celebrate with a Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne and then join the bishop for a celebratory luncheon.

In 2006, the diocese honored Fathers Dave Voors and Jim Delaney (25 years), Msgr. Owen Campion and Fathers John Pfister and Ed Erpelding (40 years), Father Robert Yast (50 years) and (the now late) Msgr. William Faber (70 years).

In 2007, the diocese honored Fathers Adam Schmitt, James Rose and Dan Leeuw (all 50 years), as well as Father Dale Bauman (25 years).

In 2008, however, the jubilarian number stood at one solitary priest, Father Barry England, pastor of St. Bavo Parish in Mishawaka and a priest since May 25, 1968. On Sept. 16, the priests once again gathered for Mass and honored Father England’s jubilee with lunch on the garden level of Archbishop Noll Catholic Center in Fort Wayne.

Father Barry England, right, celebrates his 40th anniversary as a priest with a luncheon at the Archbishop Noll Catholic Center Sept. 16. He is joined, at left, by Father Ed Ruetz, retired in South Bend, and Father Paul Bueter, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Warsaw.

Next year, the number of priest jubilarians swells once more with an anticipated 12 priests celebrating anniversaries.

As if the school’s anniversary wasn’t enough, Most Precious Blood Parish, Fort Wayne, experienced another reminder of its age on Sunday, Sept. 14, when it blessed and dedicated a new base for its statue of Mary and the child Jesus. The original base had gradually crumbled over time. The new base was constructed — and the area around the statue landscaped — by parishioners who donated their time. Here, Father Joe Gaughan, pastor of Precious Blood, blesses the statue after the 10:15 Sunday Mass. Photo by Charity Moss.

Father Joe Gaughan blesses the parish's Mary statue after Mass on Sunday, Sept. 14.

Most Precious Blood School in Fort Wayne celebrated 110 years on Sept. 12. This involved a “birthday party” service in the school gym/cafeteria. After the Scouts presented the flag and principal Alexandria Bergman led a prayer, the students received red helium balloons.

Students at Most Precious Blood School, Fort Wayne, receive red balloons as part of the school's 110th birthday celebration Sept. 12.

 The students then moved out to the parking lot, where the situation quickly became elevated. See the following video link…

students-release-balloons

On Sept. 5, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in Fort Wayne, already one of the largest in the diocese, grew some more with the dedication and blessing of a new wing that provided individual classrooms for the school’s Spanish, French and health teachers and made possible, for the first time in the school’s history, kindergarten.

This embellished student body, numbering now at 774, gathered in the St. Vincent de Paul gymnasium for an assembly, in which St. Vincent pastor Father John Kuzmich first welcomed Bishop John M. D’Arcy.

Father John Kuzmich

Father Kuzmich told the student body how, the day before, he had visited each kindergarten classroom, asking the students who was coming to the school tomorrow. When one student finally replied, “Bishop D’Arcy,” Father Kuzmich related that he had told the student he was right and asked who Bishop D’Arcy was, to which the student replied, “Your boss.”

The student body laughed as Father Kuzmich noted that the bishop is “a nice boss.”

Bishop D’Arcy also addressed the student body, noting St. Vincent parish’s strength in attracting new people to Catholic faith every year, in charitable giving to less fortunate parishes and schools, both in the diocese and in Latin America, and in attracting more priestly vocations than any other diocesan parish at this time. This was received with loud applause.

Bishop D’Arcy then joined Father Kuzmich and the rest of the students, teachers, staff and parents gathered in a prayer of dedication.

St. Vincent School prays at the dedication of its new wing.

After the dedication prayer, Bishop D’Arcy joined Father Kuzmich, St. Vincent associate pastor Father Jason Freiburger and superintendent of Catholic schools, Father Steve Kempinger, on a walk-through of the new addition, blessing students and classrooms as they went.

Bishop D'Arcy and Father Jason Freiburger bless a classroom in the new addition of St. Vincent School, Fort Wayne.

This eventually took them to the school library, which, thanks to the addition, is now handicap accessible.

Bishop John M. D'Arcy blesses the library at St. Vincent School, Fort Wayne.

On Aug. 21, Fort Wayne observed an annual tradition held at each end of the diocese, the Andrew Dinner. Also known as a “Come and See Dinner,” these events invite young men from various parishes to come and see and hear what the priesthood is all about. In this case, it involved talks by two seminarians, Ben Muhlenkamp and Ryan Briscoe, as well as a showing of a video, “Fishers of Men.” The Fort Wayne dinner was held at the Archbishop Noll Catholic Center downtown.

Today’s Catholic Blog hasn’t had any new posts in a month or two, and I’m going to change that as quickly as possible. The first step will be filling in some cracks from events from over the summer.

More to come.