Moves will affect several parishes across East Tennessee as well as diocesan ministries
By Bill Brewer
Bishop Richard F. Stika has announced several assignments for priests and religious servings in the Diocese of Knoxville.
Father John Orr, currently associate pastor at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville, will become pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Madisonville. He will succeed Father P.J. McGinnity, who has served as pastor of St. Joseph the Worker since August 2009. Father McGinnity is retiring from the Diocese of Knoxville and plans to return to his home country of Ireland, where he will continue serving as a priest.
Parishioners at St. Joseph the Worker are planning a retirement celebration for Father McGinnity on June 18 at the church.
Father Orr will begin his assignment as St. Joseph the Worker pastor on July 1. His assignment at Holy Ghost will conclude June 30.
“Father Orr, thank you for your service to the faithful at Holy Ghost Church and the Traditional Latin Mass community. Also, I am grateful to you for your willingness to now share your many gifts as pastor of St. Joseph the Worker in Madisonville,” Bishop Stika said.
The bishop announced that Father Michael Hendershott, who was ordained a priest in June 2015 and has spent the past year continuing his religious studies in Rome, has been appointed as a full-time teacher at Knoxville Catholic High School, part-time associate pastor of Holy Ghost Church, and associate vocations director for the Diocese of Knoxville.
Father Hendershott will be in residence at Holy Ghost and will teach religion at the high school. His assignment begins July 1.
Father Mike Creson, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in LaFollette and Christ the King Church in Tazewell, will become part-time associate pastor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church in Cleveland, part-time sacramental minister to Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, and part-time sacramental assistant to Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga. His assignment will begin on July 1.
“Father Mike, thank you for your willingness to serve in these new roles. I look forward to you ministering to the faithful in Cleveland and Chattanooga,” Bishop Stika said.
Father Raymond Powell, associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Chattanooga, has been appointed parochial administrator of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in LaFollette and Christ the King Church in Tazewell. Father Powell was ordained a priest in June 2015. His new term also begins July 1.
Deacon Adam Royal, who is being ordained a priest on June 4, has been assigned as the associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Chattanooga, effective July 1.
The Paulist Fathers, who minister at Immaculate Conception Church and St. John XXIII University Parish in Knoxville, have announced that Immaculate Conception associate pastor Father Gerard Tully, CSP, has been assigned as an associate pastor at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Los Angeles, and that St. John XXIII associate pastor Father Rich Andre, CSP, has been assigned as an associate pastor at St. Austin Church in Austin, Texas.
Succeeding Father Tully at Immaculate Conception will be Father Tim Sullivan, CSP. Succeeding Father Andre at St. John XXIII will be Father Bob O’Donnell, CSP.
Bishop Stika also announced that three Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., will be joining the diocese, bringing to eight the number of Religious Sisters of Mercy serving in East Tennessee.
Sister Teresa Mary Kozlovski, RSM, is a native of Duluth, Minn. She entered the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma in 2005 after graduating from high school. In 2012, she graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in human biology. She professed perpetual vows in 2013, and she recently graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Sister Teresa Mary will pursue her graduate medical education in the internal medicine residency program at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, of Gary, Ind., will be assisting Mother Mary Timothea Elliott, who is director of the Office of Christian Formation for the Diocese of Knoxville.
Sister Anna Marie professed her final vows on Aug. 16, 2011. She also completed a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in 2011. She currently is finishing a License in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
Sister Anne Miriam Crouche, RSM, who originally is from Sydney, Australia, entered the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma in 2014. She has earned a bachelor’s degree in primary education and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in Sydney. In 2013, she began master’s degree study in philosophy with a concentration on theology while working as an elementary school teacher. She is currently a novice in the community and has been assigned to Knoxville for her year of mission.
In addition, Brother Craig Digmann of the Glenmary Home Missioners order, who has served Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Maynardville and St. John Paul II Catholic Mission in Rutledge, has been assigned to Hancock County, where he will be doing mission work and evangelization. ■
