21 priests receive new assignments
Twenty-one priests are receiving new assignments in appointments made this month by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC.
Five parishes will welcome new pastors. At four other parishes, priests who have been serving as administrators have been named pastor.
New chaplains have been named for three high schools — Peoria Notre Dame, The High School of Saint Thomas More in Champaign, and Marquette Academy in Ottawa.
The first assignment of Father Daniel McShane will be announced following his ordination to the priesthood on Saturday, May 25, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.
For the first time in a dozen years, the list of spring appointments does not include a retirement.
The full list of appointments is found at the end of this story.
PASTOR APPOINTMENTS
Two priests are swapping parish assignments. Father Luke Spannagel, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Urbana for two years, has been named pastor of St. Mary and Sacred Heart parishes, both in Rock Island. Meanwhile, Father Anthony Co, pastor of those two Rock Island faith communities since 2016, will become pastor of the parish in Urbana.
Ordained in 2003, Father Spannagel is the former chaplain of two Newman Centers in the diocese — St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois and St. Francis of Assisi Newman Center at Western Illinois University. He also served for five years as episcopal vicar for rural life.
Father Co was ordained in 2005 and also has campus ministry experience — at Monmouth College, Augustana College, and St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois. He is also a former chaplain of Alleman High School in Rock Island, and is a former pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Andalusia.
Meanwhile, Father James Pallardy has been named pastor of St. Anne Parish in East Moline. He has served as parochial vicar of St. Anne as well as St. Mary Parish in Moline for the past year. At St. Anne, Father Pallardy succeeds Father Antonio Dittmer, who continues as pastor of St. Mary, Moline.
At St. Mary Parish in Pontiac, Father David Sabel — who has served there as parochial vicar or pastor since his ordination in 2009 — will continue to reside at St. Mary but the parish will now be under the leadership of Father Adam Cesarek, who has been named administrator. Father Cesarek has been parochial vicar of St. Mary’s since his ordination in 2015, and has served other area parishes as well.
Father Sabel will remain pastor of St. Joseph, Chenoa; St. Joseph, Flanagan; and St. Mary, Lexington. In addition, he will become pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chatsworth, a parish that in recent years had been part of a merger forming a new St. Andrew Parish in Fairbury and last year was merged with St. Mary, Pontiac.
ADMINISTRATORS TO PASTORS
The following priests, who had been serving as parish administrators, have been named pastors of those faith communities:
- Father Alexander Millar (St. Bernard and Sacred Heart parishes, Peoria, while remaining rector of St. Mary’s Cathedral);
- Father John Bosco Mujuni (Immaculate Conception, Lacon, and St. John XXIII, Henry, while remaining chaplain of St. Joseph Nursing Home, Lacon);
- Father Scott Potthoff (Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Spring Valley); and
- Msgr. Richard Soseman (St. Joseph, Peru, while remaining pastor of St. Valentine and St. Mary parishes, both in Peru).
HIGH SCHOOL CHAPLAINS
Father Corey Krengiel has been named the new chaplain of Peoria Notre Dame. Ordained in 2014, he had served as parochial vicar of parishes in Ottawa as well as Grand Ridge, and has been chaplain of Marquette Academy in Ottawa since 2017.
Father Kyle Lucas, who had been Peoria Notre Dame chaplain, will now be an assistant chaplain at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center in Champaign.
Succeeding Father Krengiel as chaplain at Marquette Academy will be Father Ryan Mattingly, who will continue as parochial vicar of parishes in Streator and Leonore.
The new chaplain of The High School of Saint Thomas More in Champaign is Father Michael Pica, who has served as parochial vicar of St. Patrick Church of Merna in Bloomington and St. Mary, Downs, since his ordination in 2016, and has also been a member of the chaplain team at Bloomington Central Catholic. Father Pica will also be parochial vicar of St. Matthew Parish, Champaign, and St. Boniface, Seymour.
Father Erik Bolek, who had been chaplain at St. Thomas More, has been assigned as parochial vicar of St. Patrick Church of Merna in Bloomington and St. Mary, Downs.
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FULL LIST OF OFFICIAL CLERGY APPOINTMENTS
(All appointments are effective on Wednesday, June 12, 2019.)
Father Jean de Dieu Ahorloo, SMA, from parochial vicar, Christ the King Parish, Moline, to return to his Society of African Missions community
Father Eric Bolek, from chaplain, The High School of Saint Thomas More, Champaign, and parochial vicar, St. Matthew Parish, Champaign, and St. Boniface Parish, Seymour, to parochial vicar, St. Patrick Church of Merna, Bloomington, and St. Mary Parish, Downs
Father Gary Caster, from chaplain, Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to parochial vicar, St. Columba, St. Patrick, and St. Francis of Assisi parishes, all in Ottawa
Father Adam Cesarek, from parochial vicar, St. Mary Parish, Pontiac; St. Joseph Parish, Chenoa; St. Joseph Parish, Flanagan; and St. Mary Parish, Lexington, to administrator, St. Mary Parish, Pontiac
Father Anthony Co, from pastor, St. Mary and Sacred Heart parishes, both in Rock Island, to pastor, St. Patrick Parish, Urbana
Father Antonio Dittmer, from pastor, St. Mary Parish, Moline, and St. Anne Parish, East Moline, to pastor, St. Mary Parish, Moline
Father Dagobert Kabendera, from parochial vicar, St. Hyacinth and St. Patrick parishes, both in LaSalle, to assistant chaplain, OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria
Father William Keebler, from parochial vicar, St. Mary Parish, Pontiac; St. Joseph Parish, Chenoa; St. Joseph Parish, Flanagan; and St. Mary Parish, Lexington, to parochial vicar, Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Chatsworth; St. Joseph Parish, Chenoa; St. Joseph Parish, Flanagan; and St. Mary Parish, Lexington
Father Corey Krengiel, from parochial vicar, St. Columba, St. Patrick, and St. Francis of Assisi parishes, all in Ottawa, and chaplain, Marquette Academy, Ottawa, to chaplain, Peoria Notre Dame High School
Father Kyle Lucas, from chaplain, Peoria Notre Dame High School and Teens Encounter Christ spiritual adviser, to assistant chaplain, St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, Champaign
Father Ryan Mattingly, while remaining parochial vicar, St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Streator, and Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Leonore, to chaplain, Marquette Academy, Ottawa
Father Alexander Millar, while remaining rector, St. Mary Cathedral, Peoria, from administrator to pastor of St. Bernard and Sacred Heart parishes, both in Peoria
Father John Bosco Mujuni, while remaining chaplain, St. Joseph Nursing Home in Lacon, from administrator to pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Lacon, and St. John XXIII Parish, Henry
Father Thomas Otto, from parochial vicar, Immaculate Conception Parish, Monmouth, and St. Patrick Parish, Raritan, and chaplain, St. Augustine Newman Club, to parochial vicar, St. Hyacinth and St. Patrick parishes, both in LaSalle
Father James Pallardy, from parochial vicar, St. Mary Parish, Moline, and St. Anne Parish, East Moline, to pastor, St. Anne Parish, East Moline
Father Michael Pica, from parochial vicar, St. Patrick Church of Merna, Bloomington, and St. Mary Parish, Downs, to chaplain, The High School of Saint Thomas More, Champaign, and parochial vicar, St. Matthew Parish, Champaign, and St. Boniface Parish, Seymour
Father Scott Potthoff, from administrator to pastor, Nativity of Our Lord Parish, Spring Valley
Father David Sabel, from pastor, St. Mary Parish, Pontiac; St. Joseph Parish, Chenoa; St. Joseph Parish, Flanagan; and St. Mary Parish, Lexington, to pastor, Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Chatsworth; St. Joseph Parish, Chenoa; St. Joseph Parish, Flanagan; and St. Mary Parish, Lexington, with residence at St. Mary Parish, Pontiac
Father Jeffery Small, from assistant chaplain, OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, to parochial vicar, St. Joseph, St. Mary, and St. Valentine parishes, all in Peru
Msgr. Richard Soseman, while remaining pastor, St. Valentine and St. Mary parishes, both in Peru, from administrator to pastor, St. Joseph Parish, Peru
Father Luke Spannagel, from pastor, St. Patrick Parish, Urbana, to pastor, St. Mary and Sacred Heart parishes, both in Rock Island