The longer I am a priest (two years this past Monday) and the longer I am a pastor, the more I realize that there is no amount of training that prepares one for everything that can happen in this way of life. I say much the same thing to the couples that I prepare for marriage; we can sit here until the cows come home and talk about communication and effective strategies for having a healthy marriage and good children, but there is no amount of preparation that will ever leave us totally prepared for the reality of what our vocation entails. It is, and can only be, a
constant process of asking God for the guidance to know what path we are called to take, as well as the courage to go down the path once we know it.

With all of that in mind, I have an important update regarding the relationship between San Carlos and Our Lady of the Rosary. After many meetings between myself, Fr. Rudolfo, and the interested parties representing the Archdiocese, and more importantly between all of us and the members of the Latino Community
at San Carlos, it has been decided that their community will be exploring other options for the future of their parish. Fr. Rudolfo in particular asked that I express the deep gratitude of his flock towards OLR and Winton Wyoming parishioners for welcoming them while we were exploring this option. Unfortunately, many members of the community have concerns about traveling outside of their neighborhoods, and we had seen increasing resistance to attending events outside of the City of Cincinnati proper.

I am sure that some are disappointed by this turn of events, as I know many were excited for the opportunity to work with another community and another culture to build up our parish and share our Catholic Faith with our neighborhoods. At the end of the day though, the goal was never to assimilate another community, but rather to welcome them with open arms if we were the best option for the growth and long term health of their parishioners. I wish that I could have kept everyone in the parish up to date as these meetings progressed, but with so many moving parts it was impossible to disseminate anything until after all parties had been heard and a final decision was made, and I did my best to represent the parish at these meetings with the opinions that had been gathered from the parish at large as well as members of the Parish Council.

This means two important things for us right now. First of all, with the conclusion of this question about what the immediate future of OLR looks like, we can move forward with the plans for the church renovations and the organ campaign. We hope to see progress on those matters very soon, and we will keep you
up to date on this. Second, we have to remember that God puts people in our lives for a reason. Even though the San Carlos community will not be joining us, the conversation around this matter hopefully will bear fruit. It is my prayer that these proceedings have made everyone in the region think and pray about what it means to share our faith not just with the world, but even with our brothers and sisters in the Catholic faith. Perhaps it can be a stepping stone to an amazing relationship with our growing Latino population at St. Matthias. Regardless of what the future holds for our communities, we can still lift up the good people of San Carlos in prayer, and hope that all of our parishes can become communities of disciples that strive to bring people to Jesus, and bring Jesus to people.
Prayers always,

Fr. McCullough