The Collar's Corner
St. Patrick and St. Vincent de Paul Parishes
Two Parishes, One Faith
Becoming alive in Christ, called to bring Him to
life in the world
June 2025
STAY WITH US
It has been 6 years now since I received a phone call asking me to consider the role of Pastor of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Patrick's Parishes. I'm sure you know what my answer to that question was. But, did you also know that here in our Diocese, when a Pastor is appointed, he is appointed for a 6 year term that is renewable more than once? Basically what that means is that every 6 years, there is an opportunity for the Pastor and the Bishop to reflect, pray, and discern the future of his assignment.
During the Lenten season I began the process of seeking a renewal of my 6 year term as your Pastor. There have been some challenges along the way (my dad's cancer diagnosis and eventual passing, the chaos of the COVID pandemic) along with the struggles that came with learning what it means to be a Pastor and how to best Pastor 2 different parishes. Over the past 6 years I've learned and I've grown, and I still have plenty of learning and growing left to do.
The good news is that, I will be blessed to continue to do that learning and growing with you as your Pastor. I had delayed sending out this month's edition of "The Collar's Corner" until I received official word from the Diocese and that came the other day. Bishop Malesic has reappointed me to another 6 year term as the Pastor of both St. Patrick and St. Vincent de Paul! I look forward to continuing to journey with you and to build upon some of the good work that we've done together over the past 6 years!
NEW PARISH OFFICE LOCATION
As I've shared in the bulletin and also at Mass, just a reminder that beginning on Tuesday, July 1st our Parish Offices will be consolidated into one central office for both parishes. Our Joint Parish Office will be located at St. Patrick's (4427 Rocky River Dr.), the office hours there are from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm. If you are calling by phone, you can call the St. Vincent de Paul number (216-252-2626) or the St. Patrick's number (216-251-1200). Our phone system is set up in such a way that the phone will ring at St. Patrick's no matter which number you call.
Know that this is a consolidation of parish offices and parish offices ONLY and this is NOT a first step towards the combining of parishes as a whole. We will continue to remain as TWO separate, individual parishes, but with one central office location. I will continue to primarily live at St. Vincent de Paul and will still hold meetings there that need to happen there, so the building will not be unoccupied. Like so many of you do, or did, I will simply drive into work every morning.
Fr. Robert and I will continue to be available to both parish families and the Mass schedule will remain unchanged. There will probably also be some bumps along the way, but please be patient and know that we will work to get any bumps that may occur along the way smoothed out as quickly as possible.
May we continue to pray with and for each other!
STAFF UPDATES AND CHANGES
I wanted to also share with you a few staff updates and changes that have occurred...
At ST. PATRICK"S we have recently hired Carl Bush to serve as Co-Maintenance Director alongside Ron Klypchk. We will continue to utilize the generosity and the talents of the men from the Road to Hope Sober Living Center and Carl will work alongside Ron to keep our parish property and buildings in good working order. Welcome Carl!
At ST. VINCENT DE PAUL, we are bidding a farewell and a blessed retirement to both Irene Smith, our Parish Administrative Assistant and Larry Ploczek, our KPM Maintenance Person. Both are in many ways the backbone of our parish and will be missed tremendously. Irene assured me that she won't be a stranger and Larry, though he won't be coming here to work will still be in his normal spot in the pew at Sunday Mass.
To help fill the void they will leave, we will welcome Charlie Alexander as our new KPM Maintenance person and Ann McKenzie (who also serves as the Administrative Assistant at St. Patrick's) as our new Joint Parish Administrative Assistant!
ST. PATRICK'S BASEMENT AND MASS
With the recent hot weather and the lack of air conditioning at St. Patrick's, the question has been raised about having Mass on the extremely hot days of summer in the Church basement rather than in the Church itself. We are looking into the possibilities. One challenge that does arise is getting our handicapped parishioners from the parking lot to the basement so that everyone is able to join together for Mass. We do have a chair lift that is up and working on the cemetery side of the Church and I'm looking into, with the input of a few others, the logistics of making sure that anyone and everyone is able to easily access the celebration of the Mass no matter how hot or cold it might be. I also am aware of at least a few parishioners who would not be able to use the chair lift for various reasons and want to make sure that we take their needs into consideration as well. I recognize how hot it can get in the Church, I even throw on a few extra layers before Mass begins ;), but I also want to ensure that everyone is welcome! More to come!
Also, an important note...If you do happen to go on a weekend to another parish where the air is cooler, be sure to stick your St. Patrick's (or St. Vincent de Paul) envelope in the collection at the parish you attend. When other parish envelopes are in our collection we send them to the parish they belong to and they do the same for us. So, you can still continue to support our parish even if you end up attending Mass in the air during these hotter summer days.
DIVINE MERCY HOLY HOUR
Every 1st Sunday of the month at 3:00 pm, Fr. Robert is hosting a Divine Mercy Holy Hour at St. Vincent de Paul. We will come together to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and pray together for peace and harmony in our world and our lives. All are welcome to join us! Our next Holy Hour will be on July 6th.
Jesus, I trust in you!
SAVE THE DATES
Looking ahead here are some dates to mark on your calendars. More details to come...
July 28th @ 7:00 pm, Location TBD: John Liberatore, a parishioner from my first parish assignment at St. Gabriel's Parish will be joining us to share and reflect on the Eucharistic Miracles that have occurred.
August 4th @ 7:00 pm, Location TBD: Perry Smith a theology teacher at Padre Pio Academy will be joining us to reflect on the theological virtue of hope in this Year of Hope and how we can be a people of hope in our day-to-day lives. I am working on finalizing the date and the time of the talk with Perry and once we have that set we will finalize the location.
August 6th: Join us from 5 pm -8 pm for the annual Holy Name Car Show. Come and enjoy checking out some cool classic cars and enjoy a bit of fellowship. There will be ice cream and other food and drink available for purchase.
August 24th, beginning with the 11:00 am Mass and going until 5:00 pm will be our Parish Picnic at St. Patrick's. Parishioners from both parishes are welcome to join in fellowship. More details and a flyer will be coming, but this year's picnic will have a beach theme and will include a DJ and some other fun for everyone! Our raffle will also be taking place that day. Raffle tickets are in the process of being printed and once we have them we will get them to you!
Don't forget to check out our websites for more information, ministry schedules, the parish calendar, etc.:
St. Patrick: https://stpatrickwp.org/
St. Vincent de Paul: https://svdpcleveland.org/