August 20, 2023
The parish community where I was raised was, without a doubt, the center of my life growing-up. I worshipped in the church weekly, was educated in the parish school, received most of my sacraments there, and even spent six incredible years teaching middle school students in the very same classrooms where I, myself once sat to learn. When I returned to St. Charles Church in 2017 to offer a Mass of Thanksgiving upon my ordination to the priesthood, I can’t begin to describe the emotions that flooded my soul, knowing that so many people from that very community – my parents and religious sisters, fellow classmates, and the students I taught – helped bring me to that altar as a priest of Jesus Christ.
Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to say that I am the Christian man and the priest I am today because of my parish. I know many of you can say the very same thing about Immaculate Conception as well. In my short time here already, I can see that there are some really beautiful similarities among the parish where I was raised and the parish, I am now asked to help shepherd.
What really inspires me is the way in which Immaculate Conception parish is engaged in the wider Cecil County community. We aren’t the “best kept secret” in Elkton and North East; rather, people from the state line to the Susquehanna know us. We are here for them in times of need and through our Outreach ministry (thanks, Dotty, and volunteers); we grieve with those who mourn; we celebrate and call forth wonderful moments of gathering: from daily and Sunday worship to annual Christmas bazaars, from youth ministry to parish picnics. For so many of us, this is home.
As you may be aware, Bishop Koenig has begun a period of pastoral planning that is intended to strengthen the local Church of the Diocese of Wilmington, and each parish is invited to be a part of that vision. Moving forward, there will be many opportunities for us as a parish to work alongside the other parishes of the Iron Hill Deanery (Middletown, Glasgow, Bear, Newark, and Perryville) to assess our strengths and help us become an even more vibrant parish community that offers our gifts and presence to the local Church as a whole. One priest from New Castle County, Delaware, put it this way in describing the Deanery model of “being Church” today. He said: “It used to be that each parish was its own island, never really caring what the other parish communities were doing all around it. Now – in this time – we have to find ways to work with others to share what we have in order to be vibrant, alive and Spirit-led.” I think that’s a nice way to say it.
In the months ahead, I promise to keep you informed of what is happening in our deanery discussions and how we as a parish are involved. Be proud, too, that we – Immaculate Conception parish -- are already ahead of the game and not afraid to “think outside the box,” working with St. Margaret’s to strengthen our religious education program and our ministry with and for the Catholic youth of the entire deanery/region.
Please pray as we continue this period of intentional planning and let us work together to make sure that Immaculate Conception parish continues to be an incredible, faith-filled community that becomes home for all who come to us, and never stays the “best kept secret” of the Diocese of Wilmington.