FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK by Fr. Terry Kerner
I want to take this opportunity to thank all friends and parishioners who offered Christmas greetings, gifts and goodies. All added up to making my last Christmas at St. Kateri most memorable.
As I announced over the holidays, I will be retiring at the end of June this coming summer. Retirement does not mean retiring from priesthood but from active ministry as your pastor for twenty years. The Archdiocesan policy is for priests to step down at age 80 from parish administration. I reached that “golden mark” last October. At my request Archbishop Vigneron graciously granted me this extra current year. The bishop called me a few weeks ago to remind me that I needed to make the retirement announcement by the beginning of the new year. Bishop Monforton also emphasized that he wanted our parish to know that St. Kateri would NOT be closing in the years ahead. Good news for all of us.
I will be living at the Senior Priest Village in Livonia alongside nineteen other senior priests all of whom help in various parishes with masses, confessions and various needs. I will share more with you as I approach retirement. For now, I can only say that twenty years seems like a long time but feels to have gone so quickly at this time of my life. You have all made it meaningful and something I cherish very much. I hope to visit often. One very remarkable quality of St. Kateri parish is generosity and care for the needy.
Christmas time every year reveals this in beautiful ways. I want to share with you the help you have given to others over the past few weeks. A consistent charity we support every year is Nativity Parish located in the poorest part of Detroit. This year from the Giving Tree you donated over 200 gifts. The Giving Tree this year included a new need for a new charity: St. Joseph Helpers, a group of men who volunteer their time and talent helping seniors make repairs to their property. The men do not charge for their labor but only ask for some help with material.
You responded by donating gift cards for Ace, Home Depot and Lowes. The Giving Tree again included this year the St. Vincent de Paul Society. A very generous $3,600 was given for this traditional charity and divided between the St. Alphonsus — St. Clement and St. Maria Goretti Conferences. Christmas 2025, with gratitude for St. Kateri’s blessings through the years, dedicated 10% of its Christmas collection to feeding the hungry. This significant collection yielded $7,548 for the St. Maria Goretti Food Pantry. Combined with the $1,800 from the Giving Tree, we can be grateful for being able to offer nearly $10,000 to help the vulnerable.
May God bless your New Year and all the people you have helped this past year!
