Father Baumert’s New Assignment
Dear Parishioners,
Not too long ago I received a call from Archbishop Lucas. He offered me a job and I accepted. The job is to be the Senior Associate Pastor at a family of parishes that includes St. John the Baptist in Petersburg, St. Bonaventure in Raeville, St. Boniface in Elgin, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Tilden, St. Francis of Assisi in Neligh, St. Theresa in Clearwater, St. John the Baptist in rural Clearwater, and St. Peter de Alcantara in Ewing. One pastor, Fr. John Norman, serves these eight parishes, and I will be there to assist him. There is one Catholic elementary school, St. Boniface, and one Catholic junior/senior high school, Pope John XXIII, both in Elgin.
I will be moving out to the Petersburg rectory on July 1 st to start this new assignment. I was the pastor for St. Francis in Neligh and St. Theresa in Clearwater from 1993-98. I was the pastor at St. John the Baptist in Petersburg from 2000-2005. In a sense, this will be like returning to the scene of the crime. Actually, it was great out there just like every parish I have worked with.
The reason for the move has to do with all the changes that St. Thomas More and St. Joan of Arc have been going through. Father Lorig worked for two years to get everything in place for the transition of these two parishes to become Midtown Catholic. He got the Mass schedule down to fit the rules from the archdiocese as to setting this up so that one priest could manage the Mass load. Father Jindra came to replace Fr. Lorig and worked to settle in and strengthen this bond between the two parishes. I stayed on to help both as this was happening, knowing that the transition would be stressful. I could take many of the funerals and some of the other sacramental work, along with home visits and hospital calls to relax the load for them. But at this point, Fr. Jindra is ready to do what Midtown was set up for, to be a one priest parish family. As the bugs were being worked out with these transitions, my work was helpful. But the next step must now take place. Fr. Jindra needs to get to know you all better and the main way this happens is with those sacramental contacts of funerals, weddings, and baptisms. If I am doing too many of those, the transition is harder, so it is time for me to move on.
I told the Archbishop I was ready for a new assignment, and this is the result. It is more than a two-hour drive to Petersburg and that is the parish in that group that is the closest to Omaha. That means I will not be in Omaha very often. With my fifteen years of working in the rural areas of the archdiocese, this assignment will be no shock for me. At this point in my life, I will not miss the Omaha traffic and it is not bad compared to many places I have visited. As things progress, I will give you more information.
God bless you all,
Fr. Frank Baumert