Diocese of Erie releases clergy appointment list, many related to pastoral plan restructuring

Anne-Marie Welsh
05/31/2024

ERIE — The Most Rev. Lawrence T. Persico, bishop of Erie, has appointed several clergy throughout the Diocese of Erie to new parishes, many related to parish restructuring that has been made public in various areas of the diocese in recent months.

Appointments are traditionally made for the beginning of the parish fiscal year, July 1, and those released today

Left to right: Father John Malthaner, Father Michael Polinek and Father John Detisch at
the 2024 ordination of Father Luke Daghir on May 24 at St. Peter Cathedral, Erie.
*Photo/Anne-Marie Welsh*

are effective July 9, 2024. The appointments, along with a list of priests who will retire in July, were shared with affected parishioners at Masses during the weekend of May 25/26. A second list of assignments, including the assignment for Father Luke Daghir who was ordained on May 24, will be shared at parishes the weekend of June 1/2.

The announcements come at the end of a months-long process overseen by Bishop Persico and Father Nicholas Rouch, vicar general and acting director of the Office for Clergy Personnel. In light of the parish restructuring plan announced for Erie County on April 29, pastors were offered the opportunity, through surveys and personal conversations, to weigh in on their preferences for the future. Members of the Clergy Personnel Board also were consulted. Reaffirming that six-year terms are a goal that promotes stability and continuity for both pastors and parishioners, Father Rouch noted clergy and administrators also have to respond to ever-changing realities.

Father Rouch, who took on a new assignment as pastor of St. Julia Parish in Erie along with his new role as vicar general in 2023, has said that while a new assignment unsettles the practical matters of life, it invigorates pastoral creativity.

“It can give us a renewed sense of why we are diocesan priests to begin with,” he said. “I would even call it a charism. As diocesan priests, we surrender our availability to the needs of our people. We go where we are needed.”

The full list of clergy announcements released the weekend of May 25 can be found here and the weekend of June 1 can be found here.