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Staff photo / Allie Vugrincic
John Vrontos breads smelts before the first St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church carryout Friday fish fry of the Lenten season on Feb. 19. St. Demetrios Friday fish fries will continue 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. through April 23.
Many Mahoning Valley churches and organizations are offering fish and sides for those giving up meat on Fridays during the Lenten season.
A year ago, they were at their height for having fish dinner fundraisers until ordered by state and county health officials to shut down in the coronavirus pandemic’s early days.
The dinners have started up once again, but with social-distancing guidelines in place including no inside dining but rather drive-thru, carryout fish dinners.
Carroll Broadcasting is bringing you a four-part series, diving into upcoming changes proposed as part of the Ministry 2025 Pastoral Plan of the Sioux City Diocese. First, we will go back to the introduction of the multi-year plan. In February 2016, the diocese announced major restructuring, reducing the number of parishes in the 24-county region from 108 to 67. Forty-one parishes would close or merge with others, leaving 31 clusters. All by 2025. At that time, the Director of Pastoral Planning was Father Brent Lingle. He explained why.
The lack of people, Lingle said at that time, was not solely on the clergy side. He cited statistics, from 2008 to 2015, representing a 27 percent decline in mass attendance. Holy Family Parish in Lidderdale and Holy Angels Parish in Roselle were the first to become “oratory,” what is now called merged worship sites.
Father David Friel is the guest for the Bucks County parish s triduum for the Year of St. Joseph, with evening liturgies and talks in the church March 17-19.
NILES Gregory J. Comer, 72, passed away peacefully in his sleep at home Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.
He was born Jan. 17, 1949, in Youngstown, the son of George and Margaret Lois Hart Comer.
A 1967 graduate of McDonald High School, Greg pursued his love for cooking and creating recipes and attended The Culinary Institute of America, New Haven, Conn. He graduated in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts. He later came back to Ohio,where he was employed by many local restaurants as an executive chef. To spend more time with his family, he accepted a job with RMI Titanium in 1980 as a furnace operator. He retired in 2009 after 28 years of service.
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Fr. Michael J. Dolan, a native of Waterbury and current resident of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hartford, has been appointed president of Northwest Catholic High School.
Fr. Dolan has enjoyed a long and successful career in ministry and education. A graduate of Francis T. Maloney High School in Meriden and Assumption College, now University, in Worcester, MA, Michael Dolan began his career as a lab technician before becoming a teacher at St. John the Evangelist in Watertown, then St. Augustine School in Hartford.
In 1991, Fr. Dolan entered St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, MA, graduating in 1995 with a Master of Divinity. While serving in area parishes, Fr. Dolan continued his studies at the Aquinas Institute in St. Louis, Hartford Seminary, and New York University. His pastoral duties brought him to St. Vincent de Paul Church in East Haven where he completed his diaconal internship under the supervision of Msgr. Gary Simeone. He served at St. Ge