Retired clergy step up during busy Holy Week

By Frank Lee • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it • April 4, 2010

The Rev. Mark Innocenti may be a man of God, but the Catholic priest is only human. Innocenti works as a pastor in multiple parishes in the St. Cloud diocese, a job that is sometimes a stretch, he said.

Retired priests and pastors are often called upon to help with pre-Easter services and celebrations during Holy Week, which includes Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and Easter observances.

“We regularly have a retired priest help us because we are a little bit stretched thin,” said Innocenti, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Little Falls, which has a congregation of about 1,100 families.

“It’s a great blessing to have these elderly priests that can help ... because they make it a more even workload for active priests when there’s a lack of active priests,” said Innocenti, who is also associate pastor of Holy Family Church in Belle Prairie.

Helping out

The Rev. Al Stangl has been retired for two years; the 72-year-old was a chaplain at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center who was recently asked to help out during Holy Week.

“Holy Week is not only the busiest but holiest week for Christians because we’re commemorating the passion, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” said Stangl, a St. Cloud resident.

The Diocese of St. Cloud includes 135 parishes with a combined Catholic population of 138,000.

There are 137 diocesan priests serving the Diocese of St. Cloud, of which almost 50 are retired, according to the diocese’s Web site.

“It feels good to help out because I don’t want to ‘rust out,’ if you want to use that term,” said Stangl, who presided over a Palm Sunday service at Country Manor Campus in Sartell that included a blessing of the palms and a celebration of the Eucharist.

“I think we all have a need to be needed — once a priest, always a priest — but what I don’t miss is going to meetings. I do enjoy the people, and I also enjoy worshipping with people, too,” said Stangl, who has been a priest for almost half a century.

Busy time

The Rev. Ed Morgan of First Presbyterian Church also said he was not working alone during Holy Week.

“I love Holy Week because it gives the entire story of the Gospel, of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and that is really the key to the Christian faith,” Morgan said.

The St. Cloud church planned a Maundy Thursday service for its more than 500 members with the help of a retired pastor who will assist in the Communion, Morgan said on Tuesday.

The Rev. Paul Hennings of Love of Christ Lutheran Church and its 600 members also look forward to this time of year, he said of the St. Cloud church.

“One of the things we always do at Love of Christ is we have people basically fill out little red sheets of paper — postcard size — with their sins and then we, all, as a congregation go and nail them to a large wooden cross at the sanctuary ... and then we burn the paper,” he said.

Because of a decline in the number of priests a few years ago, the Rev. Thomas Knoblach became pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit, the Church of St. Anthony and St. John Cantius Church.

“Holy Week is the time in which we have the most well-attended liturgies — and Christmas. I would say attendance is probably two and sometimes three times the amount of the usual participation,” he said.

Knoblach asked the Rev. Gregory Lieser, a retired priest from Sauk Rapids, to help out with a third of his services during Holy Week.

“Because we have three parishes in our cluster and many of them have their own liturgical schedule, we try to keep as much continuity as possible for the communities, so many of the services are at the same time,” Knoblach said.

Continuity

Lieser comes out of retirement every now and then. He and others like him receive a stipend “to cover their expenses, their driving, their miles, their time,” according to Innocenti.

“We could adjust the schedule so that we could do all of the services without the help of retired priests, but it would mean compromise on the part of the congregation, based on when they’re used to attending services, which would affect participation,” Knoblach said.

Innocenti said, “There’s an increase in confessions this time of year — people preparing for the high point of our liturgical year — and confession is just another tool God gives us to cleanse our souls.”

Lieser was pastor of St. Peter’s Parish and the Church of St. Anthony in St. Cloud, so the 73-year-old feels “very comfortable” when he is called upon to help.

“It’s fulfilling to be able to participate in the ceremonies, to lead a congregation in the ceremonies,” Lieser said.

Knoblach said, “We’re very grateful to them for their continuing generosity. They’ve served for many years, and they’re very willing to continue.”