1998 The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana 9
page 8
:hael T. Madden is
:e new pastor of St. Matthew,
Vernon.
His first days have been filled
getting a ill-
and "getting to
the parish and the corn-
has been exploring the
I started
around the neighbor-
one direction, then
he said. He has dri-
the city, too, getting
more familiar with
Madden was born
1, 1949, in Washington,
,." where his family attended
lmon Church. After studies
and in Innsbruck,
ordained Aug. 22, 1975.
i FATHER MICHAEL
MADDEN
Mount Vernon
Swartz said so
few days in his new
Were "so far, confusing,
how to use the tele-
learning the sched-
• just learning routines."
Joseph Swartz, who
FATHER JOSEPH SWARTZ
Sacred Heart, Vincennes
has been at St. Matthew, Mount
Vernon, since 1986, is the new
pastor of Sacred Heart, Vin-
cennes. He returns to a parish
he served as an associate in the
early years of his priesthood.
Father Swartz was born Nov.
24, 1949, in Washington, Ind,
where his family attended St.
Simon Church. After studies at
St. Meinrad and at Kenrick
Seminary in St. Louis, he was
ordained May 31, 1975.
At Sacred Heart, he said he
expected to begin soon to start
attending the regular meetings,
the parish council and finance
committee, to see "where they
are and what their goals are."
Father Swartz said his
approach at a new parish is "to
want to keep things as much as
possible the way they were in
the past." There are probably
good reasons for the way things
are done, he said.
To really get a feel for a place,
he believes it takes as much as
a year, going through the whole
church year. But he sees steady
progress. "Each day makes a
difference," he said.
Father Lowell Will continues
his service to the Washington
Deanery, moving to St. Mary
Church, Washington. He had
been pastor of St. Peter, Mont-
gomery, St. Patrick, Coming,
and St. Michael in Daviess
County since 1991. Following
the designation of St. Patrick
and St. Michael as chapels,
Father Will added pastoral
responsibilities for All Saints
Church, Cannelburg.
Father Will was born Sept. 29,
1942. His family attended St.
Joseph Church, Vanderburgh
County. After studies at St. Mein-
rad and Innsbruck, he was
ordained March 2, 1968.
Father Lowell Will has moved
in to the rectory at St. Mary
Church, Washington, but he said
he doesn't have everything
unpacked yet or in an orderly
place. "Things will come (togeth-
er) within another week or so,"
he added
One of the exciting things
about his new position as pastor
is getting re-acquainted with the
people he had gotten to know
when he was an assistant pastor
and a teacher at Washington
FATHER LOWELL WILL
St. Mary, Washington
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Catholic, from 1972 to 1980.
He's looking forward to get-
ting to know new people, too, he
said, but for the first few weeks,
he found much of his time taken
up in learning the schedules, the
meetings, what has been done in
the past and where things are.
FATHER JACK
DURCHHOLZ
Holy Redeemer, Evansville
Father Jack Durchholz has
served as an associate for a few
months at St. Joseph Church,
Princeton, and as associate at St.
Ferdinand Church for about
three years.
He now lives and works at
Holy Redeemer Church, Evans-
ville, where he looks forward to
"aiding Father Ron (Zgunda)
and getting to know more about
the people and their interests."
The new associate says his
books are all on the shelves, and
everything is out of the boxes, but
there is still some rearranging to
do, as he completes his move and
starts his new assignment
"It's exciting being back home
in Evansville, but it was hard
leaving Ferdinand, leaving
friends and family members,
parishioners," he said.
In the few days he has been at
Holy Redeemer, he has found
that "people are very open, very
friendly and accepting."
Father Durchholz was born
July 11, 1957, in Evansville, and
ordained a priest March 18,1995.
said, going on to say it is just a
healthy part of any person's life.
If your child is sick at night,
you just get up, he said. You
don't stop and question your
promise of obedience. If a friend
is in need, you help.
So when the bishop called,
Father Zgunda answered, believ-
ing that priests have to be com-
mitted to go where they are
needed. "People in the military
understand this best," he said.
But doing what duty calls you
to do "doesn't take away the
emotional ties and bonds you've
made," he said. "And that's a
good sign. I would hate to have
left a place and not felt a nse of
mourning, of grieving."
There's a flip side, too, said
Father Zgunda. "There is a
healthy challenge that comes in
change, in moving." He said
when a priest finds himself so
comfortable that he begins to do
the same thing that he did last
year, "you begin to lose that cre-
ative edge you need in ministry."
A priest needs to have openness
to the call of the spirit, he said.
As for getting to know the new
parish, "it requires patience on
everybody's part." People in a
parish "know what they're los-
ing, but they don't know what
they're gaining."
We all speak the same lan-
guage, he said, but each parish
has its own dialect. It's like a fam-
ily, which is in many ways like
any other family, but yet each has
its own personality.
Father Ronald Zgunda, a for-
mer co-pastor of St. Simon and
most recently pastor of St. Mary
Church, both in Washington, is
the new pastor of Holy
Redeemer, Evansville.
Father Zgunda was born Feb.
12, 1951, in Hammond, Ind. He
studied at Indiana State Univer-
sity, and then went to St. Mein-
rad. He was ordained May 6,
1977.
'q think the longer a person is
at a parish, the more ties you
make, the bonds grow deeper,"
he said.
His eight-year stay in Wash-
ington was the longest assign-
ment of his priestly life. "Leaving
there personally was a far more
wrenching thing than I thought
it would be."
But Father Zgunda told the
parishioners at St. Mary's that he
recalled his earlier years in Lin-
ton and Bloomfield, where he
had been very happ); too.
Moving to a new assignment
is part of priestly life, part of the
obedience required, Father
Zgunda said.
"All of us are obedient," he
FATHER RONALD
ZGUNDA
Holy Redeemer, Evansville
"For a while," the new pastor
believes, "you need to know how
to dance with each other, not
stepping on toes." You have to
show respect for each other.
Father Zgunda points to statis-
tics that say the average Ameri-
can family moves every seven
years, and notes that a diocesan
priest's life is much more stable
than thaL He knows that in the
long run, he'll be in the Diooese
of Evansville, ha southwestern
Lndiana. An average American
family does not have that kind of
security, he notes.
Ot aspect of a priest's move
from parish to parish is not often
talked about, Father Zgunda
said. And that is the "tremen-
dous help" given to a priest by a
secretary or a housekeeper, by
people who take time to write a
card or a hole, € members of the
old and new parish staff who all
"do an exceptional job in tDfng
to be sensitive to the cha in
your life at the mom,t."