Dear Parish Family of St. Matthew,
I am writing to you today to introduce myself. I am Father Frank Hoffmann and Bishop Caggiano has appointed me as Parochial Administrator of St. Matthew Parish until a pastor is appointed. What, you may ask, is a Parochial Administrator? The short definition is that he has the authority of a pastor,
but can be removed at any time. Bishops usually name a priest to this job to oversee the transition from one pastor to another, particularly when the first pastor passes away unexpectedly.
I want to stop right there and offer my heartfelt condolences to you all on the loss of your beloved pastor, Msgr. Walter Orlowski. He was truly a pastoral genius as evidenced by Saint Matthew Parish itself. His amazing love of people, particularly those given to his care as pastor, truly changed hearts and lives in bringing them closer to Jesus Christ.
My role as Parochial Administrator will be mostly an administrative one. Fr. Sunil Pereira, who has done such a masterful job of keeping the parish going during Monsignor’s illness, will continue to run
the day to day pastoral aspect of the parish. I hope to be able to say Mass on the weekends, but that will be on a limited basis, at least initially, due to commitments I already have and the fact that my full
time job is Vicar for Clergy. My main job is to oversee the continuation of construction and completion of the St. Matthew Recreation Wellness Center, one of Msgr. Walter’s great dreams for the parish.
As I am sure you already know, Monsignor Walter put together an amazing team to oversee the running of the parish. I commend their hard work assisting Fr. Sunil in maintaining the life of the parish,
especially with the great challenge of the pandemic. In many ways, I will be doing my best to stay out of their way and let them do what they do best.
I hope I may get a chance to meet you sometime in the future. In the meantime, let us continue to pray for Msgr. Walter, St. Matthew Parish and one another.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Frank Hoffmann