Grace and Peace to you, my brothers and sisters:

As many of you have probably heard, my favorite liturgical time of the year is Easter. Easter, to me, is an opportunity to renew our mission as baptized and confirmed Catholics. This time challenges us in our discipleship of the Lord to imitate our first brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to imitate the boldness of Peter, who stood in the temple preaching about the Resurrected Christ. We are to imitate the passion of Paul, who took to challenging roads to bring Christ to those who didn’t know him. And we are to imitate the openness of Philip, who the Spirit took from one place to another to baptize and preach Christ, as well as the persistence of the women who were the first to testify to Christ’s resurrection when others did not want to believe. Easter season challenges us to be bold, passionate, open to the Spirit, and persistent in our commitment to the Gospel.

I find it fitting for this season to make this official announcement to all of you, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. As of June 18, 2024, I will be the pastor of the Faith Communities of Saint Sebastian, Saint Lucy, Saint Richard, Saint Edward, Saint Patrick, Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph, and Saint John Nepomuk. This is a monumental task to take on. With the help of your prayers and the Holy Spirit, I believe God will provide the wisdom, knowledge, and passion needed to fulfill this task. There is not an ounce of doubt on that.

But this task is not for me alone. I will share this task with three great brother priests. Fr. Michael Petersen will be part of the team; he brings a breadth of experience as a priest. He has experience serving in many communities throughout the archdiocese. Fr. José Mario Nieto has been part of the Family of Four Parishes until now. He is an excellent biblical scholar and priest, as you know already. And finally, Fr. Craig Richter. He will be newly ordained and bringing a fresh passion for ministry. Our job as his first assignment is to help him become a great pastor of souls. Soon you can meet all of them and get to know them better. 

I invite all of you to pray for the upcoming planning process for the Catholic Church in Racine. It is a bold move, but necessary to secure and strengthen our Catholic presence in the city. I believe the team of priests set for this task have a passion for Christ and his Church, which will help us to undertake this task. I would like us to become a church more missionary and evangelizing rather than one simply maintaining itself. I know that this requires a tremendous amount of flexibility, but I assure you that if we all pray and work hard on this, we will be stronger. Let us pray unceasingly for this process all the time and trust in the Lord that the result will be a renewed church and vibrant communities of believers.

Our parishes’ websites have information about the planning process under the tab Renewing Faith: Creating Vibrant Communities. I will post information there and keep you updated on the process. Any official communication regarding this planning process comes directly from me and will be posted there.

Blessings and praying for you,
Fr. Juan M Camacho