5/23/25 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott
Photo Caption: A Hard Day’s Knight- Congratulations cast, crew & directors!
Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,
Habemus Novum Pastorem. We have a new pastor. Other than a few days’ heads up as to who he was going to be I have no inside information about Father Anthony Raj. Like all of you I am excited to meet him and work both for him and with him in advancing the mission of Our Lady of Peace.
Father Anthony, the name he prefers for us, is the 11th pastor to shepherd Our Lady of Peace since its founding. The founding pastor, Father Foley was here for 19 years. Msgr. Grimes, for whom our gym is named and who was the second principal of Bishop Watterson High School was with us for 20 years.
In my own brief stint as principal for the last 8 years, Father Anthony will be my fourth boss, not counting Father Pete who has gracefully served us since January. Msgr. Johnson hired me in 2017. Father Dooley came in 2019.
How does the pastor of a parish with a Catholic school work? To be clear, although I am the principal of the school, Father Anthony is my boss. In fact, I have many bosses: the pastor, the superintendent of schools, Dr. Adam Dufault, and Bishop Fernandes. And, although he is way, way, way at the top and I will most probably have no direct interaction with him, I gained one more new boss recently with Pope Leo XIV assuming the place of Peter.
Our school is an extension of the parish. Indeed, it is subsidiary to the parish. Without the parish, Our Lady of Peace School is not in business. During the days of Real Presence Real Future when they discussed closing Our Lady of Peace, they meant both 20 E. Dominion and 40 East Dominion. Thankfully, our school is at near capacity, our parish is thriving, and we have our own pastor. Many churches share. We will keep Father Anthony all to ourselves, hopefully for a full term of 12 years. In that case he will be my last boss!
Each pastor has his own management and clerical style. I have no doubt that Father Anthony will bring unique gifts in both areas to us. And while he has only been in our Diocese since last year, he will be celebrating his 25th anniversary of ordination this year, so he has lots of experience.
While the culture of Our Lady of Peace and our neighborhood is undoubtably different than the area Father Anthony came from both in India and New Philadelphia, we are all children of God. We are all Catholic. Transubstantiation happens the same way there as it does here and all over the world. The bread and wine of Mass becomes the real presence of the body and blood of Our Lord and Savior. We are so fortunate to have the continuous service of a priest to officiate over this miracle on a daily basis here.
Our Lady of Peace Parish and School has always prided itself on the warm welcome that we give those who come into our community, as either guests, or new members. We are known for that. In last Sunday’s homily Father Pete preached the mandate from Jesus that “We love one another.” We do that well here and I am sure that Father Anthony will feel that from our parishioners, our teachers and staff, and our students. We will make him feel right at home!
Let us continue to pray for Father Pete as he goes into “re-re-re-retirement.” Let us continue to pray for our present pastor, Father Tennant who was a brief but most welcome replacement for Father Dooley. And let us pray for Father Anthony that he will serve as a model of Christ for us, and that he will see Christ in us.
Habemus novum pastorem!
Jim Silcott
