CHARLOTTE — Bishop Michael T. Martin, OFM Conv., has reestablished the Diocese of Charlotte’s Presbyteral Council, effective June 3.
The council, which advises the bishop in governing the diocese, had been automatically dissolved upon Pope Francis’ acceptance of Bishop Peter Jugis’ resignation on April 9, according to Church law.
Bishop Martin reinstated the membership of the council that had been serving up until Bishop Jugis’ retirement.
Council officers resuming their positions are:
- Chairman Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Monroe
- Vice Chairman Father Christian Cook, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Swannanoa
- Secretary Father Matthew Codd, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte
- Treasurer Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Parish in Huntersville and judicial vicar for the diocese
Other members of the Presbyteral Council are listed on the diocese’s website, www.charlottediocese.org.
Required by Church law, the Presbyteral Council represents all priests in the diocese and is “like a senate of the bishop” (Code of Canon Law 495 §1), with about half the members elected by priests and others appointed by the bishop.
— Catholic News Herald
CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte announces that Jesuit Father John Michalowski, parochial vicar at St. Peter Parish in Charlotte, is leaving in May for another assignment by his order and the new parochial vicar will be Jesuit Father Paul Brian Campbell.
Born in Belfast, he joined the Irish Jesuits in 1974. He studied philosophy in Paris, then went to Japan where he studied Japanese and Theology and served as a teacher. After ordination to the priesthood, he spent several months assisting in a parish in Yamaguchi, the town where St. Francis Xavier landed in the 16th century. In 1989, he moved to the U.S. to pursue a doctorate in communications, then taught at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, for many years.
In 2006, after a few years serving as vice president of Loyola Productions in Los Angeles, he was missioned to Loyola Press in Chicago, first as vice president for mission, identity and online community building and then as publisher from 2010 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020 he served as associate pastor at Holy Trinity Parish in Washington, D.C., and since 2020 he has been a priest in residence at Loyola Jesuit Center in Morristown, New Jersey.
— Catholic News Herald