From the pastor’s desk—Feb. 20, 2022

Dear Sacred Heart Family,

As you may have noticed we have some new faces on our staff, and I would like to share with you a little about the who’s who at Sacred Heart.

Our most recent arrival is Luis Bolanos who has started as our part time youth minister. Luis is a student at OTC and has been a resident in Springfield for 18 years. Besides being bilingual, Luis has a very enthusiastic spirit that will serve him greatly with our youth. Our next activity will be Sacred Heart Night at the Circus on February 25th and we hope you and your family can join us.

Right before Luis, we brought “Millie” Calvetti on as our full- time bilingual secretary. Our parish has sorely needed a full- time bilingual secretary for several years and she will be able to give our Spanish speaking parishioners full access to our parish office services. Her 19 years of service at The Catholic Center will be a great asset to our parish and we are happy to have her on board.

For those of you who are taking, what about Dee? We would hate to lose her too, and she will be continuing with us as Parish Facilitator working with our membership, bulletins and volunteer programs, so rest easy, we are not losing her wonderful, smiling, welcoming presence in our office.

Earlier addition to our parish staff began with bringing Glenn Eckl on as our Parish Administrator. Glenn also has had many years of experience at The Catholic Center and is a great grace for us, especially when we need to promote our parish events on the regional level. He has quickly become an invaluable help for me in responding to the countless needs of our facilities that I am no proficient in, from lighting to leaks.

Glenn is assisted by two gentlemen, Don Jesus and Ubaldo Tovias, both who work to keep our facilities in shape. I am constantly amazed how they are able to fix whatever needs to be fixed. Their latest project is finishing the windowsills in 3 of our PSR rooms that have been unfinished for many years.

A little before I arrived, Deacon Horatio began at Sacred Heart. A husband and father of 2 young men, Deacon stepped into Deacon Jim’s role as Director of Religious Education. Although he had never done this position before, his willing spirit has inspired several new individuals to join our PSR formation program as catechists and we are so grateful for his gentle witness among our young people.

Finally, we have Br. Manolo who is a new and old face to our parish. He will be working with our liturgy committee and pastoral family among other projects. He joints Kathy Krudwig who has been our bookkeeper for over 5 years and has finally brought our accounting systems in full compliance with our diocesan policies for which we are very grateful.

I am very blessed by each of these extraordinary individuals and together 2022 looks bright year for Sacred Heart.

With a heart for Mission,
Fr. Ray