Southern Nebraska Register
Fifteen priests began new appointments as pastors in parishes across the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln last month, and four priests began serving as a pastor for the first time.
Father Tony Schukei was installed as pastor of St. James Parish in Mead Wednesday, July 1. Father Matthew Zimmer, pastor of Ss. Mary and Joseph Parish in Valparaiso and dean of the Wahoo Deanery, performed the installation during an evening Mass.
During the Mass when a pastor is installed, he makes a profession of faith – the Nicene Creed – and declares his belief in “everything contained in God’s word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church,” and his acceptance of “everything that is definitively proposed by that same church with regard to teachings about faith or morals” and his submission “of will and intellect” to the teaching authority of the Holy Father and magisterium of the Church.
The pastor also makes an oath of fidelity to the parish to carry out his responsibilities as pastor and formally meets leaders in the parish such as the trustees or parish council members.
The other first-time pastors installed in diocesan parishes this year are Father Samuel Beardslee, for Immaculate Conception in Rulo and St. Mary in Arago; Father Daniel Rayer, for St. Patrick, St. Anne and Sacred Heart parishes in McCook; and Father Dominic Winter, for St. Benedict in Nebraska City.
SNR photos | Natalie Bender. Click for more photos.
