March 08, 2026
Dear Friends,
Since the announcement last weekend of Bishop McClory’s decision to merge St. Joseph and St. Maria Goretti into one new parish, I imagine that many of you have been asking a variety of important questions. Why is this merger happening? When will the merger take place? What will be the name of the new parish? Who will be involved in the merger process? Where will the parish be located?
As I said last weekend in my homily at St. Joseph and my written message at St. Maria Goretti, so far the bishop has only provided answers to the first and last of these questions. This merger is taking place because it is part of a larger process throughout our diocese to better align the people and resources of our local Church to serve the needs of the faithful and of those we are called to evangelize. According to the bishop’s decision, by the end of the merger process, the new parish will be located on the campus of what is currently St. Maria Goretti Church.
This week, I met with the bishop to get a sense from him of what may be some of the answers to the many other questions you and I have about the merger process. By the time I wrote this article on Tuesday evening, I had not yet had my appointment with the bishop But I hope to be able to share with you soon information about what we can expect in the coming weeks and months.
But beside all the “W” questions listed above and others that we may have, there is another question that we may be asking: How? How will we do this? How will we merge two parishes with rich histories and traditions of living out the faith into one new parish? These “how” questions are vital for the merger process, and they are not questions that the bishop can answer. They are questions that only you and I can answer. These are questions we will need to figure out together, guided by the Lord.
And it seems to me that the Lord offers us an important insight into how we can answer these “how” questions in thebeautiful passage of the encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman in this Sunday’s Gospel. What I think is truly amazing about this passage is that the main action recounted is a conversation between Jesus and the woman. In fact, this is the longest conversation between Jesus and another person that is recorded in any of the four Gospels! The Samaritan woman risked having a conversation with a stranger, whom she came to know as her Messiah. Their conversation was deep and personal, and it forever changed her life.
Unfortunately, in our fast-paced, hyper-polarized, social media culture, graced conversations, in which the participants truly listen to each other with an open heart and a willingness to be vulnerable, are a rare experience. To be truly heard by another person, like the Samaritan woman was, is a powerful blessing. It is a grace that connects and transforms us in a way few other experiences can. But it is a grace that fewer and fewer people in our culture experience.
I know that, during my years as a priest, some of the most graced moments in my ministry have occurred when I entered as fully as I could into a conversation with someone who needed to be heard. Over the 3 ½ years that I have been pastor of St. Maria Goretti and the 14 months that I have been pastor of St. Joseph, I have been blessed to have countless conversations with so many parishioners. While not all of them reached the depth of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, each one has given me a glimpse if the way God is present and active in the lives of us all.
So, when we stop and ask, “How will we do this? How will we merge these two parishes into one new parish?” it seems to me that a big part of the answer is that we will do it one conversation at a time. Whether it is a conversation about what we have loved about St. Joseph or St. Maria Goretti, or what are hopes are for our new parish, or our concern for a sick family member, or the ways we can serve the needs of those around us, every one of those conversations can help us to recognize how the Lord is deepening our relationship with him and with each other.
To help us rediscover and relearn the lost art of conversing, the Lord gathers us Sunday after Sunday, so that, together, we can converse with him. And this Sunday, Jesus gives us a masterclass on the kinds of conversations that we, as his disciples, should be willing to have with others. Jesus took his time with the Samaritan woman, not going into “problem-solving” or “advice-giving” mode. Instead, he willingly heard the woman tell her story, including her past hurts, which made it possible for her rediscover her own value in the sight of God.
Peace,
Father Leo