Substitute Priest . . . and a Guest

This week I was filling in for my friend and fellow Holy Cross priest Father John Wironen, CSC while he took some much-deserved time away.

Fr. John is the pastor of Holy Cross Parish, the parish immediately adjacent to the University of Portland. The Congregation of Holy Cross founded the parish but has not officially staffed it in quite some years. Fr. John is currently "on loan" to the Archdiocese as pastor of Holy Cross.

He is there by himself, but gets some help from the priests at the University of Portland. But since it's summer, most of those guys are away right now, so I took the morning Masses all this week to give John a breather.

Meanwhile back at Holy Redeemer, I have been making progress on more long-term projects. I had new carpeting laid in one of our offices and also had the sacristy carpeted. I have several other "improvement" projects lined up, and will also be doing lots of planning for the coming year.

Earlier this week we also welcomed Walter Pruchnik to Holy Redeemer. Walter just finished his candidacy with Holy Cross and will head to Cascade, Colorado as a novice in August. This summer Walter will live with us here at the parish and help coordinate our summer religious education camp for school-age children.