Message from Fr. Darling

By now you probably know that I have been appointed Canonical Administrator of St. Alphonsus Parish by Bishop Walkowiak. The task he has given to me is to help you transition from a Redemptorist parish model to a Diocesan parish model. Most of my work will be administrative working behind the scenes with the parish staff members, parish finance and pastoral councils. Given my prior assignments as Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish and Canonical Administrator of All Saints Academy, the amount of time I have to be here is limited. Therefore to assist me the Bishop has assigned Deacon Jim Hessler. Deacon Jim is a retired businessman who serves as a permanent deacon at his home parish of Our Lady of Consolation in Rockford. He will be on site here at St. Alphonsus more than I will be but we will be working together to help you with your transition. In addition we will still have Fr. Chung here and he will focus on your sacramental and pastoral needs. It is my hope that with the three of us working together you won’t even notice any differences in your life here at the parish, except that you will have Fr. Chung by himself as the Redemptorist assigned to the parish.

Given that Fr. Chung will be the only priest assigned to care for your sacramental and pastoral needs, I am sure that you can understand that since he is just one person he obviously cannot offer you the same level of ministry that two or three Redemptorist priests were able to in the past. I doubt that you are aware of the Cannon Law of the Church that allows a priest to preside at two Masses per day, three masses on the same day by exception, but not more than three Masses on the same day. Given that you presently have four Masses scheduled on a Sunday, Fr. Chung would not be allowed to preside at all of those Masses. Therefore we are making changes to the Mass schedule since it is difficult to get help in parishes from retired priests who are often already committed to fill in especially in those parishes that don’t have a resident priest. I would like to ask you to be patient with Fr. Chung as he stretches himself as far as he can to minister to your needs.

I am sure that you have many questions about the future to which I don’t have too many answers to give you. I would simply suggest that you continue to do the good work that I have watched you do these past 16 years being your neighbor next door. Remember that the Second Vatican Council defined the church as “the people of God”. I have learned over the years that if we let God be God and we be humble enough to be God’s people then the Holy Spirit will guide us to where we need to go. That is to where I hope to be able to lead you with the help of Fr. Chung and Deacon Jim.

Fr. George Darling