Article: African priests serving the U.S. Church

Quartz is a news website founded in New York, but it has editions on other continents. Quartz Africa recently published an article of some thirty paragraphs on the history of priests from Africa serving the Roman Catholic Church of the United States. "African priests are now the future of the Catholic Church in the United States" may be of some interest to parishioners of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Some priests born in Africa have been excardinated (released) by their home bishops and incardinated into our diocese. Others are serving here as externs, still under the canonical jurisdiction of their home bishops.
The link to this helpful article is HERE.

Appointment of associate pastors, many effective 6.26.2019

Please see the list on the diocesan website, under Press Releases. The site drvc.org has been reformatted, but the list of appointed associate pastors is still on the previous format.

The top nine are priests apparently already working in the diocese, maybe still incardinated overseas.

The next group of eight newly appointed associated pastors seem not to have worked recently in the diocese of Rockville Centre. They may be categorized as Externs, still incardinated somewhere else.

The third group, numbering five, are to take their positions in September. 

Surnames from Ghana predominate.

A few months ago, I was surprised to learn that a priest cannot be incardinated unless he has been canonically excardinated (or released) by his previous bishop. It seems that, over the centuries, our church has had problems with wandering or vagabond priests. In the UK recently, a new Celebret document was created, almost like a driver's license with attempts to prevent forgery.

Catholic Communications Campaign

Today, June 2, 2019, the second offertory collection was for the Catholic Communications Campaign. Half goes to Rockville Centre. Much information about how the national half is distributed can be found at this link. 
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I presume that the diocesan half gets distributed to Catholic Faith Network (television, based in Uniondale), the diocesan website, and perhaps The Long Island Catholic.  

Pastoral appointments effective June 26, 2019

June 26, 2019, is moving day.
Our bishop has announced pastoral appointments. The link to the full list is HERE. New pastors in Nassau County are:
Fr. Seth, the outstanding priest met on the televised Masses at the cathedral, with clear, concise, illuminating homilies, is the new pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal in Wantagh.
Fr. Jeff Yildirmaz is the new pastor at St. Barnabas, Bellmore.
Fr. Christopher Costigan moves to St. Martin of Tours, Bethpage.
Msgr. Mark Rowan is the new pastor of St. Kilian, Farmingdale.
Msgr. Thomas Coogan goes to St. Dominic, Oyster Bay.
Fr. Brian Barr will pastor two parishes, adding Point Lookout to Our Lady of the Isle.
Msgr. Robert Clerkin to pastorate in Port Washington.
Fr. Joseph Fitzgerald to St. William the Abbot, Seaford.
Fr. Rony Fabien to St. Martha, Uniondale.
Fr. Adrian McHugh to St. Aidan, Williston Park.
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Above are new pastors.
One new administrator is Fr. Lawrence Onyegu to Blessed Sacrament, Valley Stream.
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For both counties, please see the full list.

All Saints School to close

An email from licatholic.org explains that the diocese will close two elementary schools in June, due to low enrollment: All Saints at St. Patrick's, Glen Cove, and St. Joseph School, Ronkonkoma. All Saints is a regional school sponsored by five parishes: St. Patrick, St. Rocco, St. Hyacinth, St. Boniface Martyr, and St. Mary (Roslyn). At All Saints, the current enrollment in K-8 is 132 students, plus eleven more in Nursery level. Two different websites provide more information, drvcschools.org and drvcschools.com

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The Long Island Catholic weekly newspaper once printed an informative grade-by-grade chart of the enrollment in the Catholic elementary schools of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. If my memory is correct, this was done during the editorship of Msgr. Paul McKeever, 1967-1975. As we approach Catholic Schools week, publishing a similar chart on a drvcschools website org would likewise inform the Catholic population.

Fr. Willard Jabusch, hymnist

Today we sang at communion "See How the Virgin Waits," with a Slovak folk melody. It saddened me to discover that its composer, Fr. Willard Jabusch, of Chicago, died this December 8th, age 88. You may read an obituary in the Chicago Tribune HERE. Many hymns he authored were based on hymns in Christian cultures in other lands and languages. 
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Some of his eighty hymns are listed HERE. His talent helped us worship and praise.
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Today's hymn is certainly an appropriate Advent song. I have not yet discovered whether it is also a translation from Slovak or whether he has Slovak ancestry. Please comment below if you know!
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May the choirs of angels welcome him.

Collection for Retired Religious

This Sunday, December 9, 2018, parishes will receive collections for the Retirement Fund for Religious, as organized in the diocese of Rockville Centre. Some years back, there was a fund for two dioceses, Brooklyn and Rockville Centre. It appears from the brochure and letter from Bishop John Barras that the funds will be send onward to the USCCB for its National Religious Retirement Office. Congregations of female or male religious apply for specific grants from the NRRO. The website retiredreligious.org contains an Annual Report and Financial Statements that details the distribution. (I complain that some praiseworthy charities fill their annual reports with photos and narratives, but avoid listing details of distribution. The NRRO link is outstanding for its explanation of distributions.)
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I generalize that most congregations that built colleges or academies are better off financially than those that earned stipends by teaching in parishes or doing more localized work. In the Direct Care Assistance table, the fourth column states the percentage of the congregation's (or province's) retirement needs not funded. Some U. S. religious orders, congregations, or provinces are listed in a separate section, titled Congregation Contributions.  
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A state-by-state listing within the Direct Care Assistance table offer important information, namely the number of members. Knowledge of the provincial structure of the larger congregations is helpful in reading these numbers.
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As for Long Island, these member numbers are given for 2017:
Brentwood Josephites, 460 Sisters.
Amityville Dominicans, 367 Sisters.
Huntington, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, 33 Sisters.
Daughters of Wisdom, 72 Sisters.
Ursulines of Tildonk, Blue Point, and Jamaica, 36 Sisters.
Halifax Sisters of Charity, 53 Sisters.