DIOCESAN NEWS
01/19/07
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Six priests move this week to new parishes
By Fabvienen Taylor
      WOODVILLE — In an area saturated with Cajun cuisine, Father Walter Brown could be found at lunch most Sundays seated before a plate of Katherine Plitt’s Italian meatballs and spaghetti.
      “Mrs. Katherine Plitt always insists that I eat with her after the 10:30 a.m. Mass,” said Father Brown. “She’s 93 years old and her meatballs are terrific. If I didn’t go I’d almost get chewed out.”
      Mrs. Plitt, who is recovering from a fall at Thanksgiving, according to her daughter Margo Ferguson, will miss Father Brown, Woodville St. Joseph pastor, when he leaves for West Point Immaculate Conception Parish, his new assignment.
      “He’s very nice and we’ve enjoyed him,” said Ferguson. “If he didn’t come on Sundays momma wanted to know why. We’re all crazy about him and hate to see him leave.”
Father Brown is one of six priests who received new appointments in December 2006, effective Jan. 17.
      Pastoral re-assignments affect both priests and parishioners. “You know you get attached to a priest after he’s been here six years,” said Ferguson.
      With several moves under his belt, Father Brown “takes things as they come. I pick things up where they are and continue on with whatever plans are in place at the new parish,” he said.
      Relocating, literally, does not suit Father Brown’s taste. “I hate to move,” he said. “I hate packing, I hate unpacking. It’s a big challenge.”
      For Father John Bohn, the new pastor of Starkville St. Joseph, moving means loading and unloading gear for fishing, hunting and golfing, but also, as with Father Brown, loosening pastoral ties.
      “I’m getting almost too good at moving,” said Father Bohn, as he prepared last week to leave Clarksdale St. Elizabeth and Immaculate Conception parishes after two years.
      “I was hoping to stay here awhile longer. It has been great, awesome. The people are really great,” he said.
      On Thursday, Jan. 11, at the weekly Liturgy at St. Elizabeth Elementary School students and staff presented a collage of photographs to Father Bohn as a going away gift and hung a banner proclaiming “We will miss you Father John.”
      “He’s really good with the kids, young and energetic,” said Elizabeth Scarbrough, principal. “I heard one of the little girls tell him `You’re just the best priest we’ve ever had.’
      “They all just loved him so,” she said “We’re just really sad but we know Father John Vollor is going to be good too.”
      In addition to Fathers Brown and Bohn the other appointments were: Father John Vollor appointed pastor of Clarksdale St. Elizabeth and Immaculate Conception parishes; Father William Cullen appointed pastor of Forest St. Michael; and Father Patrick Smith appointed pastor of Woodville St. Joseph.
      On a related note, Father William Henry was recently appointed pastor of Chatawa St. Teresa of Avila in addition to his present assignment at McComb St. Alphonsus.
      And moving the farthest distance to his new parish is Father Richard Smith, former pastor of Forest St. Michael, whose new assignment is pastor of San Miguel Parish at the state mission in Saltillo, Mexico.
      For Father Smith, the best part of his 10-year tenure was learning the diversity and depth of the different cultures in his parish and its missions.
      Helping parishioners to develop their sense of ownership of the parish and the outreach to the Latino community were the main challenges when he arrived, he said.
      “There were a lot of things to do and I had to learn my limits, what I could and could not do,” Father Smith said. “We had so many things to learn. We have a betters sense of balance now.”
      At Paulding St. Michael, Brenda Read is one of the volunteers at the parish who helps lead the Communion services and helps provide services to parishioners.
      “Because of the priest shortage Father Rich had to rearrange his schedule and we do not have Mass every weekend because he had to alternate Paulding with his other assignments       (Newton St. Anne Mission, Spanish Mass),” she said.
Father Smith prepared them, Read said, for the transition months before hand, holding discussions and getting them mentally ready.
      “He is a very positive person. He helped me, and the others, to recognize our talents and encouraged us to use them. He’s a very special person. I think a lot of people think that,” said Read.
      Sister Yesenia Fernandez worked with Father Smith for nearly three years in the Spanish-speaking and other Latino communities.
      “We have the same vision about what programs, what strategies to take in the community,” she said. “He is very easy to work with. When I found out he was going to Saltillo I told him ‘See, God put you here for a reason.’”
      Father Smith said he will work with five distinct communities in Saltillo and visit 40 villages. “I’ve heard there is good local leadership in each of those places and a lot depends on that,” he said.
      Long-time St. Elizabeth parish secretary Dolores Lowe has seen many priests come and go. “It is a big challenge for a new priest coming into the parish and meeting the people,” said Lowe, who has worked at her parish for 20 years.
      “It takes a good six months to really get to know them in all ways, how they like things done,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot.”
      Starkville St. Joseph people need not worry that he will go in and change everything right away, said Father Bohn.
      “I’m more of a reactive type of guy,” he said. “I go in and see how things are and if we need to make changes fine. If things are working fine, people are working fine, I don’t see any sense in breaking what doesn’t need fixing,” he said.

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