Welcome Rev. Eric Bowman

This weekend, St. Jude welcomed only its 4th Pastor in its 50+ year history. Rev. Eric Bowman prayed his first Mass for our parish at 8:30 am, Saturday, June 30. He's everything I heard about him (which has been all good), and more. Mass attendance increased noticeably (another thought about this in a moment). Also of note to me were several things I heard during his Sunday Mass homily that probably hadn't been heard from the pulpit recently:

• I am excited to be here...


• I will make mistakes...


• Who-dey!


• I usually preach 6-10 minutes...


• I will love you with every ounce of my being...and that's a lot of ounces...

Laughter and applause marked all 3 Masses. At both meetings I've attended with Fr. Bowman (staff and worship commission), he's stressed the need for clergy and staff to earn and maintain the people's trust by being faithful to Church teaching and above scandal. I hope people continue to appreciate and respect Fr. Bowman if and when he preaches that which we don't want (but need) to hear.

I'm using the occasion to pray for vocations and priests, especially those changing parishes, like Fr. Rick and Rev. Paul Ruwe who is the new Pastor at Rich Leonardi's parish; and especially for Fr. Bowman's ordination classmates Rev. Edward Burns, Rev. Geoffrey Drew, Rev. Peter Helmlinger, Rev. Joseph Kindel, Rev. James Reutter, Rev. Kyle Schnippel, and Rev. Jamie Weber. What an incredible seminary class...may all our prayers for vocations result in more enthusiastic, holy priests like these men.

I mentioned Mass attendance in the 1st paragraph. I'm grateful to see more people in our pews. St. Jude, like most other parishes, has seen its 'October count' steadily decline in recent years, though the population is increasing within our parish boundaries. I have a lot of respect and gratitude for our former Pastor, Fr. Rick Dressman. I don't intend any of my praise for Fr. Eric to demean Fr. Rick. They're totally different people and priests. Fr. Rick is insightful, challenging, generous, kind, tolerant, patient, and (believe it or not) funny. I think it's a shame that a noticeable number of people couldn't see these qualities beyond the perception they had of Fr. Rick - a perception he wouldn't/couldn't do anything to change. Beyond that, I have a renewed appreciation for all who continued giving and sacrificing to contribute to parish life at St. Jude. May this kind of loyalty and selflessness inspire us all to holier lives.