Archbishop Fabre announces changes for several parishes
The East Tennessee Catholic
Twenty-two priests in the Diocese of Knoxville are transitioning into new roles as Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, apostolic administrator of the diocese, announced a series of assignments that will impact more than a dozen parishes.
Archbishop Fabre announced the assignments publicly on April 15 soon after the priests who are assuming new roles informed their current parishioners.
Father Chris Michelson, a longtime diocesan priest who has served at a number of parishes in the dioceses of Knoxville and Nashville over a 44-year priesthood, will retire from active ministry, effective July 1. He will continue to serve as president of St. Joseph School in Knoxville and as adviser to the president of Knoxville Catholic High School.
Father Michelson is the founding pastor of St. Albert the Great Parish in Knoxville, which was established on July 1, 2007. The parish’s first Masses were held on that date in the Sister Elizabeth Assembly Center at St. Mary’s North hospital, which is now Tennova North. Ground was broken for the parish on Nov. 15, 2008, and the then-new St. Albert the Great Church in the Halls community was dedicated on Aug. 29, 2009.
Father Michelson also was the founding pastor of All Saints Parish in Knoxville when it was established in 1994 and dedicated in January 1999. And he was instrumental in leading development of Knoxville Catholic High School at its current location in the Cedar Bluff community adjacent to All Saints Church. The school relocated to its present campus from the original site on Magnolia Avenue in January 2000.
Father Michelson was ordained to the priesthood on May 30, 1980, at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge, where he was baptized and confirmed as a youth. The Oak Ridge native attended St. Mary School. He attended St. Meinrad College and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West in Cincinnati.
He has served as pastor of All Saints Parish, dean of the Cumberland Mountain Deanery, chairman of the Diocese of Knoxville Presbyteral Council, episcopal vicar in the diocese, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Lenoir City, and parochial administrator of St. Alphonsus Parish in Crossville.
In the 1980s, he served as associate pastor of Christ the King Parish in Nashville, associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Madison, Tenn., a coordinator for youth ministry and an associate director of vocations for the Nashville Diocese, associate pastor of St. Henry Parish in Nashville, teacher at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, and director of Camp Marymount, also in the Diocese of Nashville.
Father Christopher Floersh will serve as parochial administrator of St. Albert the Great Parish in Knoxville, effective July 1.
Father Floersh has been serving as diocesan director of vocations since 2020, as chaplain at Knoxville Catholic High School, and as part-time associate pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut.
Following his 2017 ordination to the priesthood, Father Floersh was assigned as chaplain at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga and part-time parochial vicar at St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga.
Father Albert Sescon is retiring from active ministry, effective July 20.
Father Sescon has been serving as chaplain of Ascension Living Alexian Village in Signal Mountain since September 2021. He was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in LaFollette, St. Jude Parish in Helenwood, and Christ the King Parish in Tazewell in July 2018. And he was named pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fairfield Glade in July 2014.
He previously served as parochial administrator and pastor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish in Cleveland and as a chaplain at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
Father Sescon was incardinated into the Diocese of Knoxville in July 2016 after serving in the Archdiocese of Detroit for eight years. He was ordained a priest in June 1986 in Cebu City in the Philippines and has ministered to the Diocese of Knoxville’s Filipino Catholic community.
St. Augustine Parish in Signal Mountain will temporarily be providing sacramental ministry for Alexian Village.
Father Gilbert Diaz, who has been pastor of Holy Family Parish in Seymour for nearly 10 years, has retired from active ministry, effective May 1.
Father Diaz was ordained to the priesthood in January 1994 at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge. His first assignment in February 1994 was as an associate pastor at St. Jude Parish in Chattanooga.
In August 1997, Father Diaz left St. Jude and was assigned to St. Mary Parish in Oak Ridge as an associate pastor. In July 2001, he was appointed pastor of St. Bridget Parish in Dayton. From St. Bridget, Father Diaz was assigned as pastor of St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga in July 2006. He was assigned as pastor of Holy Family in July 2014.
Father Bill McNeeley will serve as parochial administrator of Holy Family Parish in Seymour, effective June 1.
Father McNeeley has served as pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville since July 2019. Father McNeeley became the first man in Diocese of Knoxville history to enter the presbyterate under the Pastoral Provision, established in 1982 by Pope St. John Paul II to allow Anglican clerics to petition for ordination to the Catholic priesthood.
Father McNeeley previously has served as assistant to the pastor and as parochial administrator of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Alcoa.
Father John Orr will serve as parochial administrator of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville, effective June 1. Father Orr was assigned as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Athens in July 2018. Prior to his St. Mary assignment, he was named pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Madisonville in July 2016. He also has served as pastor of St. Therese Parish in Clinton and associate pastor of Holy Ghost.
At St. Joseph the Worker, St. Therese, and Holy Ghost, Father Orr has offered Masses in the extraordinary form [the “traditional Latin Mass”] in addition to the standard Roman Rite Mass. He also has led Hispanic ministry in those parishes.
Father Orr, who earned his Ph.D. in 2014 from the Maryvale Institute in the United Kingdom and who also previously served as spiritual director at Knoxville Catholic High School, was ordained into the priesthood in 2001 by then-Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz.
Father Valentin Iurochkin will continue to serve as associate pastor at Holy Ghost Parish. Archbishop Fabre named him to that position in January.
Father Iurochkin is of Russian descent and joined the Diocese of Knoxville in October 2019. He served as associate pastor of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga and as chaplain at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Newman Center from September 2020 to February 2024.
Father Iurochkin formerly was with the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) religious order and was incardinated into the Diocese of Knoxville in December 2022.
Father Christopher Manning will serve as parochial administrator of St. Mary Parish in Athens, effective June 1. Since July 2019, Father Manning has served as chaplain, teacher, and part of the administrative staff at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga. He has been in residence at St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga and has served as chaplain of the Serra Club of Chattanooga.
Father Manning’s first assignment following his June 2013 ordination to the priesthood was as an associate pastor at St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut beginning in July 2013. He also served as chaplain at Knoxville Catholic High School from 2014-19.
The Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul will provide sacramental ministry to Notre Dame High School beginning with the fall semester.
Father Bartholomew Okere, who has served as pastor of St. Henry Parish in Rogersville and St. James the Apostle Parish in Sneedville, announced he will be leaving those parishes effective June 1. Father Michael Cummins, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport, will celebrate Masses at those parishes in the interim.
Father Bede Aboh will serve as associate pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport, effective June 1.
Father Aboh has served as chaplain of the Catholic Center at East Tennessee State University since July 2015. Prior to his Johnson City assignment, Father Aboh served as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Oak Ridge, where he was assigned in July 2011.
Father Aboh’s ministry in East Tennessee began following his Aug. 13, 1988, ordination, when he served as a hospital chaplain with the Alexian Brothers in Signal Mountain. He joined the Diocese of Knoxville priesthood in September 2008, when he was incardinated.
In July 2006, Father Aboh was assigned to St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut as an associate pastor. Then in November 2008, he was named pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Alcoa and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Mission in Townsend, which was elevated to parish status in 2010.
He also served as pastor of St. Catherine Labouré Parish in Copperhill and associate pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Madisonville.
Father Zach Griffith will serve as chaplain of the Catholic Center at East Tennessee State University and as part-time associate pastor of St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, effective July 1.
Father Griffith, who was ordained to the priesthood in August 2020, has served since September 2020 as associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Chattanooga.
Archbishop Fabre also announced that ETSU will be welcoming four FOCUS missionaries to its campus beginning in fall 2024.
Father Matthew Donahue has completed his canon law studies in Rome and will be assigned as a judge and documentary case instructor for the Diocese of Knoxville’s Marriage Tribunal.
Father Donahue also will serve as part-time associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Chattanooga, effective July 1. He was ordained to the priesthood in August 2021.
Father Mark Schuster will serve as director for the Diocese of Knoxville Office of Vocations, effective June 9. Father Schuster will continue as the pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Crossville, where he has served since July 2021.
Father Schuster was ordained to the priesthood in June 2019. Previously, he served as associate pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut.
Father Arthur Torres Barona will become assistant vocations director, effective June 9. He will continue to serve as pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Chattanooga and as pastoral leader of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School.
Father Torres served as associate pastor of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus following his 2013 ordination to the priesthood. And he has been the deanery coordinator for vocations, master of ceremonies for diocesan Masses, and moderator of the Hispanic Marriage Encounter Ecclesial Movement.
He has been pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help since October 2020. He was ordained a priest in December 2013 in his native Cali, Colombia.
Father Michael Hendershott will continue to serve as associate pastor of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga and at the Catholic Student Center at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Archbishop Fabre appointed Father Hendershott to those posts in February.
Father Hendershott, who was ordained to the priesthood in June 2015, was named associate pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in July 2020, where he also coordinated liturgies for the Latin Mass and Hispanic communities. Previously, he has served as associate pastor at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, as chaplain and on the faculty at Knoxville Catholic High School, and as associate vocations director for the diocese.
Father Alex Hernandez will serve as an associate pastor of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, effective July 1, and as chaplain for EnCourage. He has served as associate pastor of All Saints Parish in Knoxville since September 2020. Father Hernandez was ordained to the priesthood in August 2020.
Father Don Andrie, a Paulist priest who has been serving as pastor of St. John XXIII University Parish on the campus of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for 10 years, will be leaving St. John XXIII for Austin, Texas, where he will be on sabbatical.
The Paulist Fathers announced that succeeding Father Andrie at St. John XXIII will be Father Larry Rice, CSP. Father Rice is a veteran Catholic campus minister and a leader in faith-based communications. He most recently served as chaplain of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
From September 2016 to June 2020, Father Rice was director of the University Catholic Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and from 2004 to 2010, he served as director of the St. Thomas More Newman Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus.
Father Rice served in Washington, D.C., on the staff of the Intercommunity Telecommunications Project and at Paulist Media Works from 1990 to 2002. He made his first promises to the Paulist community on Aug. 11, 1984. He was ordained a priest on May 13, 1989.
Father Bo Beaty will, following his June 8 ordination to the priesthood, serve as associate pastor at St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut, effective July 1.
Father Daniel Herman will, following his June 8 ordination to the priesthood, serve as associate pastor at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, effective July 1.
Father Michael Willey will, following his June 8 ordination to the priesthood, serve as associate pastor at All Saints Parish in Knoxville, effective July 1.
Deacon A.J. Houston will, following his June 8 ordination as a transitional deacon, serve at All Saints, effective June 9. Lt. Houston also is serving in the U.S. Army.
Archbishop Fabre is not appointing any pastors. Rather, priests responsible for parishes will be appointed as parochial administrators for the duration of the vacant see. Bishop-elect Mark Beckman, upon his appointment and installation, will be able to confirm these appointments and name pastors.
