Three longtime pastors will move on to other parishes, and three new deans have been appointed.
By Dan McWilliams
Three pastors who have each led their parishes for more than 12 years have been reassigned as part of a series of appointments announced by Bishop Richard F. Stika on Jan. 6.
New assignments await Monsignor Al Humbrecht, Father John Dowling, Father Pat Garrity, and several other priests effective Feb. 1. The appointments of three new deans will also take effect that day.
Monsignor Humbrecht has been pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral since 1997. He will become pastor of Holy Spirit in Soddy-Daisy. Father David Boettner, diocesan moderator of the curia and episcopal vicar, will become only the sixth pastor in Sacred Heart’s 54-year history. His title will be rector, or canonical pastor, as the bishop is officially the pastor of his cathedral parish.
Father Boettner’s two diocesan duties are unchanged, but he will no longer be administrator of St. Mary in Gatlinburg, where he had served since Monsignor Philip Thoni’s retirement last summer.
Father Dowling has shepherded St. John Neumann in Farragut since 1997 and oversaw the building of the parish’s new $11.1 million church. He will become pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Fairfield Glade.
Father Garrity has led St. Patrick in Morristown for a dozen years, during which the growing community has built a large new church and a parish life center. A former principal of Knoxville Catholic High School, Father Garrity will succeed Father Dowling at St. John Neumann.
Longtime St. Patrick associate Father Joseph Hammond, CHS, will become the new pastor there.
Father Mike Creson, founding pastor of Holy Spirit, recently went on leave so he could care for his mother, who is ill. He will become an associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Chattanooga. The current associate, Father Augustine Idra, AJ, is also the spiritual director at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga. With Father Creson on board at OLPH, Father Idra will become spiritual director full time at the high school while still living at OLPH and assisting at weekend Masses.
Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell, in one of his final actions as Knoxville’s first bishop, named Father Creson to organize the Soddy-Daisy parish in 1999. His successor, Father Humbrecht, was at OLPH and served as the dean of the Chattanooga Deanery during the 1990s. Father Humbrecht and the deanery pastoral council led the search for property for the new parish in Soddy-Daisy.
Father John O’Neill, who has served at the Glade parish since last year, will return to the site of one of his more recent assignments when he becomes chaplain for the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville. He also served as their chaplain from 2005 to 2007.
“Various pastoral situations such as Father Mike Creson’s need to take care of his ailing mother and the Dominican Sisters’ need for an experienced chaplain have prompted me to make some pastoral changes,” the bishop said in his announcement, acknowledging that “winter is not a season of the year when pastoral changes normally occur.”
Father Alex Waraksa will be the new associate pastor of St. Patrick in Morristown, as well as the Five Rivers Deanery coordinator for Hispanic Ministry. Previously he had been associate pastor at Holy Spirit. He remains the diocesan moderator of the Cursillo movement.
Father Joe Brando, who retired last summer, became the new pastor of St. Mary in Gatlinburg, effective Jan. 18.
In an assignment that will take effect March 1, upon his return from a Spanish-language immersion program in Bolivia, Father Christopher Riehl will be an associate pastor at Sacred Heart. Before leaving this month for South America, he had served as associate at Immaculate Conception in Knoxville since his priestly ordination on Nov. 14.
Father Garrity had been dean of the Five Rivers Deanery since 2004. Bishop Stika has appointed Father Bob Hofstetter of Good Shepherd in Newport to succeed him.
Monsignor Humbrecht, the Smoky Mountain dean since 2000, will hand that title to Father Chris Michelson of St. Albert the Great in Knoxville.
Cumberland Mountain has a new dean in Father Bill McKenzie, pastor of St. Mary in Oak Ridge. Father Michael Sweeney, who has served as dean for 12 years, will remain pastor of Blessed Sacrament in Harriman, St. Ann in Lancing, and St. Christopher in Jamestown.
“I extend my appreciation to all these fine priests who have willingly accepted these new appointments,” wrote Bishop Stika. “I know moving during this time of the year can bring some challenges, but I know they are up to the task. I thank them for their generosity and fidelity to their priestly ministry. Please join me in congratulating and praying for these faithful servants as they begin their new assignments.”
