Father Pachla with members of the St. Veronica Changing Lives Together leadership team.

Bill Blaul
Special to The Michigan Catholic

Eastpointe —When Fr. Stanley Pachla and lay leaders at St. Veronica set their priorities for the Changing Lives Together campaign at the Eastpointe parish in 2010, reconstructing and improving the main altar was at the top of the list.

The ambo at St. Veronica was relocated to a newly-tiled sanctuary floor using rose marble from the same quarry in Italy that supplied the stone when St. Veronica church was constructed in 1956.

Rallying around a plan to replace the altar and floor built when the church was constructed in 1956, parishioners responded with more than $145,000 in pledges toward a new altar, new tile and steps, and to reposition the marble ambo. Boston Tile & Terrazzo Company of Detroit, which constructed the sanctuary and installed the marble inside St. Veronica Church in 1956, installed the new altar and did the ambo relocation and the tile work, which was completed last August. The new altar at St. Veronica contains relics of St. Francis Xavier, St. Paul of the Cross, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Pius X, St. Catherine Laboure, Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowski, and wood from the True Cross of Christ, and was dedicated in a Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Byrnes.

As the focus of the Sacrifice of the Mass, the new altar at St. Veronica is timely, with parishioners from nearby St. Peter the Apostle, Harper Woods, preparing for the closure of their parish June 30. The St. Peter church and land will be sold, and the parish will merge with St. Veronica to form one worship community, keeping the St. Veronica name. St. Veronica will receive the proceeds from the St. Peter property sale.

St. Veronica was founded 85 years ago. A parish history noted, “They did not have a lot of money; however, they were proud of their Catholic faith and wished to worship God in a beautiful church. They were willing to sacrifice for their children and future generations.”

Fr. Pachla has been pastor of St. Veronica for 16 years and has served as administrator of St. Peter since June 2012.

“Last summer, we set up a 12-person transition team and a joint parish pastoral council to ensure everyone was at the table to consider how to best utilize these two parishes, our several ministries and our one pastor,” said Fr. Pachla. “The St. Peter parishioners thought it made the best sense to merge with St. Veronica and close their parish, which was a big decision.”

St. Peter was founded 60 years ago to accommodate the growing numbers of Catholics in the east-side neighborhoods surrounding the two parishes. About 245 households are now registered at St. Peter, while St. Veronica has about 600 registered households.

“We had an informal meet-and-greet at St. Peter for the two parish communities just before Christmas. The St. Peter parishioners put up a kiosk about their parish ministries, circulated a map of how to get to St. Veronica, and we started publishing Mass schedules in both parish bulletins.” Fr. Pachla explained, adding that more joint parish activities are planned this spring. “Even though we’re just a couple of miles from each other, not many parishioners from either parish have been to the other’s church, so the more familiarity we can encourage, the better.”

St. Basil Changing Lives Together co-chair Janina Jacobs (in blue) with Father Sulkowski (center), Archbishop Vigneron, and St. Basil parishioner Susie Barr at a campaign event in 2012.

As St. Peter parishioners prepare to relocate, parish representatives from St. Veronica and St. Basil the Great in Eastpointe have been meeting as part of the Together in Faith pastoral planning process to coordinate ministries and develop contingency plans should pastors at either parish become unavailable.

“We’ve alternated confirmation sites between St. Basil and St. Veronica for some time, we have joint Bible study during Advent and Lent, and we do blood drives coordinated between the parishes, so there’s some familiarity among parishioners and we have a head start on future collaborations,” Fr. Pachla said. St. Veronica, St. Peter, and St. Basil are about two miles from one another between Gratiot and Interstate 94.

St. Basil parishioners are regular volunteers in a Macomb County program that enlists the help of area churches to house and feed area homeless.

Fr. Pachla is coordinating pastoral planning with Fr. Anthony Sulkowski, pastor of St. Basil. “We decided to accelerate our work together in the interest of the faithful at St. Peter,” Fr. Pachla said. “Ministries at St. Peter will find new homes at both St. Basil and St. Veronica. For example, St. Basil will host the St. Peter’s senior group and lifelong learning center, which will welcome new members from St. Veronica and St. Basil. Coordinating these ministries and opening them up to other parishioners has been healthy for all of us.”

A parish pastoral council comprised of lay leaders from St. Peter and St. Veronica and has been formed, and other ministries are being combined, such as ushers and youth groups. “If St. Peter was simply closed, none of this collaboration would have happened,” Fr. Pachla said.

Some of the St. Peter Parish history will be preserved by moving statuary and other artifacts to St. Veronica. A Mass of unity is planned for July 7 at St. Veronica.

St. Basil is also investing in its facilities through Changing Lives Together, having launched its campaign last year. Parishioners have pledged more than $198,000 to upgrade the parish social hall, install new signage, paint the church interior and fund new youth programs and other projects. About 700 households are registered at St. Basil, where Fr. Sulkowski has been pastor since 2007.

“We are already sharing faith formation between St. Veronica and St. Basil, and we’re considering starting a joint education commission for adult religious education,” said Fr. Sulkowski. “St. Veronica has a rectory and church, while St. Basil has a church, social hall, and meeting space, and we’ll get the best use from our facilities by considering them as one. Our parishes have been anchors in Eastpointe for many years, and we hope these joint efforts will keep it that way for years to come.”

Royal Oak — Healing services that include confession, Mass, the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, Eucharistic adoration and healing teams to pray over people are attracting hundreds of lay faithful to National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Royal Oak. Fr. Alex Kratz, a Franciscan friar, presides over several healing services at the Shrine each year, with the most recent gathering in April involving about 200 attendees.

The National Shrine of the Little Flower is among the most historic and active parishes in the Detroit Archdiocese.

Each service includes healing teams that meet with the faithful and, when requested, pray over them or for their intentions.

“Considering three sacraments are available, these are very sacramental gatherings,” said Fr. Kratz, who resides at the Duns Scotus Franciscan Friary on the grounds of Our Lady of La Salette Parish in Berkley.

“For the seriously ill, we offer the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick during Mass,” he said. “Following Mass, we expose the Blessed Sacrament, at which time healing teams and prayer ministers fan out to pray with the faithful for physical healing or intentions, including the healing of relationships and job opportunities.

“Those who attend are thirsting for and really appreciate the personal touch available through the prayer teams. All our people are good Catholics, serious about their faith and have an expectant faith in the Lord Jesus that good things will happen,” Fr. Kratz added.

Confession is offered before Mass, and music enhances the spiritual atmosphere.

“When you put this all together in a beautiful setting like the Shrine, it makes for a very special evening,” Fr. Kratz said.

The intention is to continue the healing work Jesus began, Fr. Kratz explained.

“The Gospels say Jesus was always doing three things: teaching, preaching and healing” (Mt. 9:35), he continued. “These three go together, because even if people are healed, there is the daily need of ongoing growth in discipleship, which requires teaching and the preaching Jesus modeled for us.

Fr. Kratz said in general, today’s Catholics don’t pay enough heed to Jesus’ earthly ministry.

“Not only did Jesus model that for us, especially us priests, but people who may not come to church for anything else, will come to church to be healed,” he said. “To experience the power and love of Jesus in the Holy Spirit is one of the most effective forms of evangelization — and it is easy to do.”

Judy Maten, associate director of the archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, experienced one of the Shrine’s healing Masses in January, an experience she called “phenomenal.”

“You could feel the Holy Spirit, and the people coming forward for healing and prayer was very moving. In evangelization, a core component to bringing people back to the Church is healing, and these Masses are bringing people forward in amazing ways. It is helping to draw people back to the faith,” said Maten, a Shrine parishioner who also works with Fr. Kratz, who is an evangelization coordinator for the archdiocese.

Fr. Kratz and his team of 21 prayer ministers conduct five or six healing services and Masses annually at the National Shrine of the Little Flower, with the next gathering set for July 9. Confession will start at 6:30 p.m. with Mass immediately afterward at 7 p.m.

Other parishes in Metro Detroit that have offered healing Masses and services include Immaculate Conception in Ira Township, St. Vincent Ferrer in Madison Heights, and St. Athanasius in Roseville.

Beyond the healing ministry and his work in evangelization, Fr. Kratz also leads Terra Sancta Pilgrimages, a nonprofit pilgrimage ministry to the Holy Land.

Archbishop Vigneron and Nancy Skibinski, parishioner and administrator of the Changing Lives Together campaign at Holy Family.

Bill Blaul
Special to The Michigan Catholic

Novi — Parishioners at the Church of the Holy Family in Novi recently surpassed their Changing Lives Together pledge goal, and parish leaders agree on the main reason for their success — prayer. Before fundraising began on the $1 million-plus campaign at Holy Family, Fr. Bob LaCroix recruited parishioners to form a prayer team. The experience proved to be so meaningful, the prayer effort recently became a permanent ministry at the parish, which was founded in 1974.

“The parish family has been extraordinarily generous, and we’re ecstatic about reaching our goal,” said Fr. LaCroix. “One of the unanticipated blessings from Changing Lives Together is the way that the Lord has worked through the prayer team. I believe the many brothers and sisters who seriously took on a commitment to pray for our parish (are) one of the reasons we have been so blessed.

“What we experienced through this prayer team has been so special, we wanted to continue the ministry of prayer for the parish and invite others to join. I think this is the Holy Spirit at work among us. Serious intercession is always the precursor of God working in power,” Fr. LaCroix said.

Holy Family’s Changing Lives Together contact team solicited intentions through parishioner-to-parishioner phone calls before the campaign began, asking whether anyone had any prayer requests. More than 100 intercession requests resulted from the phone calls, which were forwarded to the prayer team.

“I had been praying to be a better intercessor before I even heard about Changing Lives Together, when Fr. Bob asked me to be one of the prayer leaders on the team,” recalled Anne Smith, a Holy Family parishioner for several years. “It was such a privilege to be asked to pray for the needs of my fellow parishioners, and very humbling to see the many requests coming in.
“The Holy Family Prayer for Changing Lives Together, which each of the team members prayed daily, asked God to unite us as brothers and sisters — as one Holy Family,” Smith continued. “Praying daily for the needs of my fellow parishioners has done that for me, and has strengthened my own faith in the power of prayer.”

As campaign activity began to wind down, prayer team members realized they didn’t want their praying to end, so they approached Fr. LaCroix, who endorsed the permanent prayer ministry. A special prayer service was held April 15 to transition from the campaign effort to a formal Holy Family prayer ministry. The service included Scripture readings and a reflection, followed by Prayers of the Faithful — a compilation of the requests received from parishioners. Fr. LaCroix blessed the parish prayer request journal and led a procession to the parish courtyard, where prayer requests placed in the campaign prayer box were burned.

Smith said the team might incorporate email and phone calls to receive prayer requests in the future. “We decided to start out in a simple way using the prayer request journal, and then depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us in our next steps,” she added.

Smith shares Fr. LaCroix’s opinion on the importance of prayer in Holy Family’s campaign success. “I’m convinced prayer had everything to do with it,” she said.

The prayer ministry team now leads the rosary at Holy Family after the 10:30 a.m. Sunday liturgy and plans to expand it to other weekend liturgies. Holy Family parishioners also pray the rosary every weekday after the 9 a.m. Mass and participate in Eucharistic adoration Monday through Wednesday between the 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. liturgies as well as on Thursdays and Fridays following the 9 a.m. Mass until 1 p.m.

The Holy Family Parish priorities to be funded through Changing Lives Together include bringing Christ to those in need, such as through a new evangelization effort to non-participating Catholics; replenishing financial reserves for building and site maintenance, such as replacing the parish HVAC systems, restroom renovation and parking lot repairs; and rejuvenating and enhancing the worship space, such as updating audio/visual equipment and installing stained-glass windows from closed churches.

With Fr. LaCroix’s support, the prayer team continues to recruit new members and intercessory requests.

“This is a new parish resource, and a call to intensify our ongoing efforts to pray for God’s will and intervention in our lives. We now have a team of more than 50 fervent prayer warriors who have been praying for the past several months for numerous intentions,” he said. “Parishioners who submitted requests have been greatly blessed by the many prayers offered on their behalf, and those on the prayer team have also been blessed in lifting these requests before the Lord each and every day since the first request was received.”

Fr. Steven Wertanen, pastor of St. Mary in Royal Oak, tapped into skills he developed in his previous career in advertising to develop a logo for the parish Changing Lives Together campaign, a goal of which is to air condition the church building.

Bill Blaul
Special to The Michigan Catholic

Royal Oak— More than a year after the pastor and parishioners at St. Mary Parish in Royal Oak launched their Changing Lives Together campaign, they continue to seek and receive pledges to achieve their priorities, with one already accomplished — eliminating the parish debt.

Parish leaders at St. Mary in Royal Oak decided to set their Changing Lives Together fundraising goal substantially higher than the archdiocesan target to retire the parish debt, air condition the church, and achieve other parish priorities.

St. Mary parishioners, with an archdiocesan target of $544,000, have pledged more than $710,000 toward a $910,000 goal for the 1,400-household parish, which continues to grow under the leadership of Fr. Steven Wertanen, its pastor. Parish priorities included eliminating the parish debt, which was accomplished last year. Improving the church heating, air-conditioning and sound systems, more visible parish signage, and technology improvements at St. Mary Catholic School are next on the list.

“This is exactly what we wanted to achieve,” said Tom Larabell, campaign co-chairman at St. Mary. “We have no debt, so now we can focus on putting our funds into real improvements.”

Larabell said the parish is getting estimates on replacing the heating and air-conditioning systems for both the church and rectory.

“We’ve never had air-conditioning in the church building; it’s something we’ve talked about for a long time, and I think we’re just a matter of months from getting there,” said Larabell, a 32-year parishioner and former business manager at St. Mary.

Larabell said the parish will continue parishioner-to-parishioner phone calls twice annually during Lent and Advent to seek prayer intentions and welcome call recipients to parish events, especially Sunday Mass. Also planned is a revival of the parish prayer team that had about 60 members during the campaign.

“We want to make it a permanent parish ministry,” Larabell said. “We’re asking folks to pray at home, and once monthly on the third Sunday starting in June, we’ll hold a prayer service at the church. We made a prayer card with things to pray for in the parish family, in our community, and on a national and worldwide basis like religious liberty and the right to life.”

The parish has witnessed other benefits from its participation in Changing Lives Together.

“We received an unexpected and greatly appreciated pledge of $80,000 from one parishioner, and we’ve been able to clean up our parish registry records through the phone calls and other outreach.”

Detroit — Take a two-hour “Morality and Conscience” course from Bishop Michael Byrnes for seven dollars. For the same fee, you can learn about “Evangelization” for a couple hours with renowned theologian and author Ralph Martin. Or, learn about “Forming Christian Community” from Fr. Simon Lobo, CC, who helped revive the Newman Center and campus ministry at Wayne State University — also a seven-dollar bargain in catechetical formation.

These are three of the 27 catechist topics in English and Spanish to be offered beginning June 17 at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. The sessions are open to catechists, those who want to be catechists and those interested in simply growing their knowledge of the faith.

Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord The theme of this year’s catechist topics, “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord,” reflects the intention to use these sessions as an evangelization opportunity to inspire and awaken faith. Previous participants have had conversion experiences resulting from the topic presentations and discussions, so this year, organizers are striving to be intentional about creating an environment of encounter and surrender. Presenters are encouraged to be enthusiastic and energized about their topics and witnesses to their faith. Setting the tone, going into the world The first day of the catechist topics sessions in June will begin with Fr. Simon Lobo’s presentation on “Forming Christian Community,” which outlines the vision of a community forming disciples and sending them forth for mission. He will also share testimonies from his work at Wayne State University. Ralph Martin will then present on the “Evangelization” topic, and Judy Maten, associate director of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis at the Archdiocese of Detroit, will present on the “Vision of Vatican II,” in the context of the Year of Faith. The day will include extended prayer time and opportunities for attendees to get to know one another. The final day of topics will close with adoration and Benediction led by Bishop Michael Byrnes, who will send participants forth to bring Jesus into the world. Registration Online registration is available for $7 per class until June 7, after which the cost is $10 per class. Register here.

The two weeks of catechist topics classes are an annual collaboration between the archdiocesan Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Schools, and the seminary’s Institute for Ministry, the administrative branch of the seminary that prepares lay students through degree and certificate programs for pastoral ministry as well as the permanent diaconate. The Institute for Ministry funds the program, which features presenters from archdiocesan Central Services, as well as clergy and master catechists from throughout the archdiocese.

Patricia Chase and Anita Houghton, both regional coordinators of catechetics with the archdiocese, organized this year’s catechesis topics and will serve as presenters.

“Archbishop (Allen) Vigneron is increasingly focusing on the need for the new evangelization in our parishes, so we decided to ensure every topic and the entire program would have that emphasis,” said Chase, a parishioner at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores. “Every catechist who teaches in a parish or school has to be certified. Some were never formally formed in the faith. These sessions enable us to offer a fully rounded, strong foundation for catechists. We’ve changed the atmosphere from attendees taking these classes to ‘get certification out of the way’ to making this a genuine experience in the new evangelization.

“We hope each participant will have an encounter with Jesus Christ, and to have their hearts filled with the Holy Spirit so they feel confident to go forth to teach others how to grow in their personal relationship with Christ,” Chase added.

While the catechist topics offer multiple certification opportunities for laity involved in teaching religious education classes, youth ministry or other programs, the sessions are open to anyone interested in learning about Christ and His Church.

“We welcome anyone who has a zeal for their faith and a desire to learn more,” said Houghton, a parishioner at St. John Vianney in Shelby Township. “We want to equip them, in the spirit of the new evangelization, to go out and help others come to know Jesus Christ.”

Houghton said another emphasis was to ensure that the context of the teaching classes is missionary. “When we participate in the ministry of faith formation, we are preparing disciples to go out and make other disciples. The goal is not merely to transmit the knowledge, but to make disciples and prepare them for mission,” she said.

While individual catechist topics are offered at parishes and vicariates throughout Metro Detroit during the year, all 27 sessions are offered at the seminary over two weeks in June. All topic sessions are available in English and Spanish, and a retreat is included in the program, as well as four enrichment sessions suggested by directors of religious education in Metro Detroit. These include a session on “Understanding Catholic Sexual Morality” with Sacred Heart professor Mary Healy and a session regarding “New Age Spirituality and the Occult” with Fr. Alex Kratz, OFM, and Jim Brodi, a parishioner at St. Lawrence, Utica, and expert in the dangers of the New Age movement.

Enrollment in the June catechist topics sessions has been increasing, with up to 160 participants attending each class. Online registration is available, and the $7 per topic fee is in effect until June 7, when the fee becomes $10 per topic.