There has been no shortage of work to do in this time. By my count, eight funerals, five baptisms, four parish pastoral council meetings, two parish finance coucil meetings, starting and completing a drainage project at Holy Family, working with staff and volunteers to get cigar smoke abated and furniture replaced both at Holy Family and Saint Paul, getting up to speed on a million-dollar narthex project at Saint Paul, begun before my arrival, studying for and passing comprehensive examinations in Dayton, completing a forty page paper for my doctoral program, beginning to draft my dissertation proposal, class visits, lots of sick calls, a couple weddings and many, many more things in addition to the normal Mass and confession schedule have kept me abusy. It is no wonder that I still have to get around to getting on a couple parish bank accounts officially. There remains a considerable amount of work for me in terms of making sure that parish staff have up-to-date job descriptions, setting goals and reviewing our adherence to child protective protocols. I have not yet had the chance to go through both parish budgets with a fine-toothed comb. At some point before the New Year, I would like to start working on writing goals for myself and entering into conversation with staff to do the same.
And my late uncle always told me that priests only worked one day a week!
I regret with all of this busyness that I have not been able to spend more time with each of you individually. It will take me more time than I had thought it would to get up to speed. I have already fallen well behind where I need to be on my academic work. Coming to terms with the recent revelations about corruption in the Church has taken a great deal of my mental and emotional energy as well. What I can say is that I have been impressed at the generosity and goodness of many people in both parishes. Next week, I would like to share about my first impressions of the state of our parish cluster.