From the Priests | De los sacerdotes

Monsignor Lou announces his retirement

THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE, LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!

This retirement announcement would be better made face to face with you all, but since we have three congregations, St. Mary and St. Adalbert-St. James, it would take three weeks to face you all. So, let me take this column to carry the message to everyone at once.
After 53 years of priestly ministry, first as a seminary professor and administrator and then as a parish priest, I have asked and received from Bishop Walkowiak approval to enter Senior Priest Status (retirement). My final day in full time ministry will be July 8 of this year. On that day I shall have completed my 79th and begun my 80th year on planet earth. It is a special moment for this little West Side boy born on 5th Street in 1939. I choke up a bit even as I write this.
Those years and that life are like a well-written novel that you cannot put down until the end, and then would like it to go on because the characters and events are so engaging. Of course, my ministry and life will go on as long as the Lord wishes, but I shall become just a helper wherever and whenever my fellow priests might need me. I may even help Fr. Dan Schumaker in a few years when he becomes a pastor. Then he can tell me “what to do” and I will do it, as he has always “done it” for me these past two years. (Of course, I still may give him a bit of advice from time to time!)
It has been a privilege and a pleasure to serve in our three historic churches during my final years. I am probably the oldest to retire from these churches, although with one of the shortest tenures in each of them. That’s only because I started here late in life! I wish I had come here at a younger age!
God bless you all.   — Msgr. Lou Stasker