Our parish is ready to add a second parochial vicar to serve the needs of our parish full-time. We signed a contract and got the keys this week to a rental home that can house two priests so that Father Nick can move from the apartment where he has been living alone near the Surprise Stadium.

His religious superior from the Apostles of Jesus Missionaries has been telling us for several years that they do not want any of the priests of their religious community to live alone. They have been patient with us, but had suggested that Father Nick live in another parish with one or two priests from their community.

I told them that it just would not fit the needs of our parish because Father Nick would be too far away to respond to sick calls and appointments and other needs within our parish. The provincial superior understood and accepted our request. We do not want to lose our beloved, Father Nick.

When he first arrived in 2014, we had a shared arrangement with a neighboring parish and we paid rent for one room in their rectory, but eventually they sold the home. We moved Father Nick into a one bedroom apartment until we could afford a better situation.

Our parish does not own a rectory. Earlier this year, we started looking for a suitable home to purchase but suddenly home prices jumped very high. So, we looked for a temporary solution with a rental home. We were fortunate to locate one in the Sierra Montana neighborhood just minutes away.

I have asked the vicar for priests of our diocese to find a second parochial vicar to serve our parish. We have around 5000 registered parish families and thus have a heavy load for our two priests. Also, I am not getting any younger and have faced some limits due to my age and changing medical condition. We have a huge parish construction project on our horizon which will demand more of my attention. It is certainly time to ask our bishop to assign another priest to our team as soon as possible.

Father Nick is looking forward to living with another priest where he can share the common life, pray together and support each other with the household tasks and the ministerial duties. He keeps very busy with taking care of the sick and with all the other things he does for our parish. We are delighted that he is very happy here and we want to support him as well as make it easier for our priestly team to provide for the many spiritual needs of our nearly 11,000 parishioners.

Please pray that our diocese will be able to assign us an additional priest soon and that the priest will be the right fit for this Catholic community.

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