Please join us to Celebrate and say goodbye to Fr. Bill!
Tuesday, June 7th, 6 pm
Farewell Garden Party
UMSL Catholic Newman Center, 8200 Natural Bridge Rd.
light hors d’ouevres, wine, beer and soda will be served
RSVP by Friday, June 3rd to cnc@cncumsl.org
See you there!
Please read the following letter from our director and chaplain of 16 years, Fr. Bill Kempf, affectionately known as FB:
Dear Newman community,
December 11, 2015 marked a milestone in my life. Though I did not realize it at the time (my internal math had somehow put that date in mid March) that was the day when I had spent exactly half of my priesthood assigned to the Newman Center. I was ordained on Dec. 15, 1984. My assignment took effect on June 12, 2000. So when you do the math, and add in leap days, Dec. 11th marked half of my priesthood at the UMSL Newman Center and living at St. Ann parish. I could not be more richly blessed, nor more thankful. These nearly 16 years have been an amazing gift.
And then, continuing the math, on January 23, 2017, I will once more have lived less than half of my priesthood serving the CSC. You see, I have been asked to become the shepherd of the people of St. Justin the Martyr parish, effective on July 1, 2016. As you can imagine, my emotions have been quite mixed about this call. I have said it early and often, I am the most blessed pastor in the entire Archdiocese of St. Louis in my assignments at the Newman Center and at St. Ann parish. And the thought of not being here on a day to day basis is a sad one for me. Yet, I sense a movement of the Holy Spirit here.
We received a grant last fall from the Lily Endowment to explore lay vocations, beginning this fall. Part of those funds are for an intern. A larger part of the grant would have allowed us to add six more hours to our part time campus minister to work with the grant. Because Erin did not want to lose Mary B. to a full time job, she began to ask what it would take to bump that position to a full time position. We crunched numbers. And crunched them again. Finally, we were close enough to ask the Archdiocese if we could potentially go into deficit spending for two years to see if this works, with the promise that we would do all we could to raise the additional funds during those two years. They said yes. And now, whomever is assigned in the dual role of Director of the Newman Center and Pastor of St. Ann will have the most staffing ever to help in his transition to these new roles for him. This unfolding of events is pretty typical of how I experience the movement of the Holy Spirit.
In addition, if you remember a homily I gave at the end of October – I spoke the Priest Profile I am asked to fill out every year and how I made completely sure I had checked the box saying: “I want to stay in my current assignment.” And then, after much praying, eventually also checked the box regarding possible future assignments that said: “Here I am, send me, no strings attached.”
Fast forward to February, when my classmate, who is on the priests’ personnel board, asked me at my priest support group – “Bill, they are throwing your name around for a few parishes, and I want to know what you want,” my reaction was “No way. I don’t want to move!!” Yet, I found that when I took that to prayer on my way home from the restaurant, in the deepest place in my heart, I had already said ‘Here I am, send me, with no strings attached.’
I never saw that ‘yes’ coming. But there it was.
I think that is what ‘successful’ married couples know all the time. There are some decisions that seem like they are not ‘easy to make’ because they involve change and sacrifice, but in reality, they ARE easy to make, because you have made that foundational choice when you said those vows: “For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.” And though I used different words on the day of my ordination, that ‘intention’ was also at the heart of my promise to the Church on that December day in 1984 – that I would love her and honor her, all the days of my life, no matter where that promise took me.
You will hear more in the weeks to come about that transition. But in the mean time, I continue to be, and always will be, the most blessed pastor in the Archdiocese because of who you are… Thank you for a wonderful half of my priesthood…
blessings,
Fr. Bill
Please join us to Celebrate and say goodbye to Fr. Bill!
Tuesday, June 7th, 6 pm
Farewell Garden Party
UMSL Catholic Newman Center, 8200 Natural Bridge Rd.
light hors d’ouevres, wine, beer and soda will be served
RSVP by Friday, June 3rd to cnc@cncumsl.org
See you there!