Bishop Malooly restructures diocesan offices to serve parishes more efficiently

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Dialog Editor

Names Msgr. Cini his special assistant, Father Hurley his moderator of the curia,

 Krebs named first lay chancellor

Bishop Malooly has announced a restructuring of the diocesan curia, the offices that implement the diocese’s mission.

During a Mass for diocesan employees at St. Joseph Church in Middletown on Sept. 23, the bishop announced the changes that include personnel appointments and realignment of some offices on the diocese’s organizational chart. (See chart and appointments on page 5 of the 10/3 edition.)

Bishop Malooly told The Dialog that the restructuring is meant to “provide the best services we can to our parishes and other institutions.”

“Over these past few years we’ve had less staff as a result of the assets we have available. We’re trying to redefine a way to be more efficient.”

 

Personnel appointments

The bishop announced the retirement of Msgr. J. Thomas Cini, vicar general and moderator of the curia, who has served four bishops of the Diocese of Wilmington as their chief administrator since 1977.

The bishop named Msgr. Cini his special assistant, with the title of vicar general. Msgr. Cini will reside at St. Joseph on the Brandywine in Greenville.

Father Hurley xxxx (The Dialog/www.donblakephotography.com)
Bishop Malooly greets his new special assistant, Msgr. J. Thomas Cini, right, who is retiring at 72 from active priesthood after serving four bishops of the Diocese of Wilmington as their chief administrator for the last 37 years. At left is Father Steven P. Hurley, who the bishop has named moderator of the curia and vicar general. (The Dialog/www.donblakephotography.com)

Father Steven P. Hurley has been appointed moderator of the curia and vicar general. He will continue as pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Wilmington.

Father Hurley had been the diocese’s chancellor since 2010.

The bishop named Robert Krebs the new chancellor. He will be the first lay chancellor in the 146-year history of the diocese. Krebs will continue in his position as director of the Communications Department.

Father Joseph W. McQuaide IV is appointed vice chancellor and coordinator for the Office of Worship. He will continue as associate pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Dover and Immaculate Conception Parish in Marydel, Md.

Father Timothy M. Nolan is named vicar for clergy and will oversee the offices of Vocations, Deacons and Institutional Chaplains. The appointment is in addition to his ministry as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Wilmington.

Dr. Louis DeAngelo has been named secretary of the Department of Catholic Education in addition to his job as Superintendent of Catholic Schools.

Kelly Anne Donahue is appointed secretary of the new Department of Human Resources for the diocese. The post is in addition to her job as director of Human Resources.

Also, on Oct. 20, Sister Ann David Strohminger, OSF, will begin her duties as delegate for Religious. A story on Sister Ann David will appear in an October edition of The Dialog.

 

Msgr. Cini

Bishop Malooly said although Msgr. Cini, 72, is retiring from active ministry, “I didn’t want to lose his wisdom. I’ve been meeting with him weekly, and Father Hurley, as the new moderator of the curia, will also want to spend a fair amount of time with him,” the bishop said.

Msgr. Cini “will be invaluable as a special assistant in advising me on issues that come up, many of which are deeply seated in the history of things that have happened in the diocese,” Bishop Malooly said.

Msgr. J. Thomas Cini (The Dialog/www.DonBlakePhotography.com)
Msgr. J. Thomas Cini (The Dialog/www.DonBlakePhotography.com)

“On a personal note with Msgr. Cini, I’ve known him since theology at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, where he was two years ahead of me. I’ve always had great respect for him.”

Bishop Malooly, who served for 19 years as a vicar general and moderator of the curia in Baltimore, said he had a lot of interaction with Msgr. Cini, who had the same job in the Wilmington diocese.

“So when I came here,” the bishop said, “I was delighted that he was in that position, because it was the same thing I did in Baltimore and I knew how competent and capable he was.”

Msgr. Cini “has always been an outstanding priest, a pastor at heart,” the bishop said. “I’m sure he’d rank being pastor of St. Ann’s at the top of all the things he’s done.

“He’s a very savvy administrator. I don’t know how many business people told me in my first years here, he (Msgr. Cini) could run DuPont.”

The bishop called Msgr. Cini “a great mentor to Father Hurley and myself. He would do anything for you. Nothing was an imposition. He knew what he was doing. He knew what was the right thing to do at a given time.”

First named episcopal vicar for administration in 1977 by Wilmington Bishop Thomas J. Mardaga, Msgr. Cini continued in that or similar roles for Bishops Robert E. Mulvee, Michael A. Saltarelli and Malooly. In those 37 years he has served four of the diocese’s nine bishops as their chief administrative officer.

Msgr. Cini has been moderator of the curia since 1985, when he was appointed by Bishop Mulvee. St. John Paul II named him a domestic prelate of honor with the title monsignor in 1992.

Ordained in 1968, Msgr. Cini first served as assistant pastor at St. Elizabeth Church in Wilmington and also as principal of St. E’s High School from 1970-72. He served as principal of St. Mark’s High School from 1972 until his 1977 appointment as vicar for administration.

Over the decades he has served on many boards of diocesan institutions and a variety of church-related committees, including: the Diocesan Finance Council, Catholic Charities, the Maryland Catholic Conference, the Catholic Diocese Foundation, Catholic Ministry to the Elderly, St. Francis Hospital, Bayard House and the Clergy Personnel Committee.

 

Father Hurley

Father Hurley, 45, has been chancellor of the diocese since 2010 and pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish since 2011.

On being named vicar general and the new moderator of the curia, he said, “It’s humbling when your bishop asks you to do that. I am honored by his trust.”

Very Rev. Steven P. Hurley (Jason Minto for The Dialog)
Very Rev. Steven P. Hurley (Jason Minto for The Dialog)

On succeeding someone who was each bishop’s chief administrator for decades, Father Hurley said, “Msgr. Cini is on my speed dial. We talk a lot about the diocese and we’re good friends.”

Father Hurley received a computer science bachelor’s degree and a master’s in business administration from Salisbury University in Maryland before he entered the seminary.

As chancellor and now moderator of the curia, he said it’s been helpful to retrieve his M.B.A. skills.

“Some say priests aren’t ordained to be administrators, but that’s part of the job,” Father Hurley said. “Part of being a pastor is having to deal with temporal things.”

The new vicar general is a former Ocean City, Md., police officer who worked his way up to detective before he decided to enter the seminary. He plans to take what he learned in college, on the beat, and in parishes — Our Lady of Fatima in New Castle, St. Ann’s in Wilmington, and as pastor at St. Thomas — and apply it all to his new post.

When he was an associate pastor, his pastors at Fatima and St. Ann’s were Father John J. Mink and Msgr. Cini.

“In terms of being good solid priests, their willingness to share their ministry and to be mentors to me, I couldn’t ask for anyone better to have served under than the two of them,” Father Hurley said.

In working with Msgr. Cini at St. Ann’s and in diocesan administration, Father Hurley said he admires his predecessor’s confidence as a leader.

“With him, it’s always, ‘what is right and reasonable?’ Never overreact, you have to think things through.”

 

Back up for the parishes

Father Hurley said police work, management and priesthood share the trait of serving “a variety of people. A lot of it is common sense, treating people justly and with respect. You lead with that.”

Having good people in place helps, too, and Father Hurley noted Msgr. Cini has built up a good diocesan staff over the decades. “We have a good team.”

9/23/14 -Middletown, DE -   Special to The Dialog / Jason Minto Photography
Bishop Malooly announced during a Mass for diocesan employees at St. Joseph Church in Middletown on Sept. 23.that Father Steven P. Hurley, left, is the Diocese of Wilmington’s new vicar general and moderator of the curia The bishop also said he has named Bob Krebs, right, the first lay chancellor in the history of the diocese. (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)

The diocesan offices exist to serve the parishes, Father Hurley said.

“We are back up for the parishes. That’s who we are. We support the parish ministries because that’s where church happens.

“I think it goes back to where do we encounter the church? We encounter the church through our parish priest,” Father Hurley said.

“I really enjoyed being the chancellor. I loved helping priests who picked up the phone and said they had a problem. I enjoyed that the most. That will carry over to the office of vicar general, too.”

Father Hurley said the job of vicar general doesn’t mean much to the average person in the pews.

“Who they look to is the pastor, their associate pastor and their deacons. They’re the ones they see if they’re sick. They’re the ones they see at their child’s baptism or wedding. They understand what their priests are doing and they want to help (the church) based on that local contact.

Father Hurley was born in Valley Lee, Md., a rural community south of Washington, D.C., in St. Mary’s County.

His parents, Diane and Gary, and his older brother by a year to the day, were members of St. George Church there where they raised their sons, Michael and Steven.

Gary Hurley was a Maryland Natural Resources police officer, and Michael became a Maryland State Trooper.

So, when Father Hurley joined the Ocean City police as a summer policeman while he was in college, he was going into the family business.

Father Hurley said his police work forced him to “grow up real fast” at 21.

For a positive outlet, he started attending St. Luke’s Church in Ocean City and became a lector and eucharistic minister there.

When priests visited the parish on summer weekends, the future moderator of the curia got to know a variety of clergy in the diocese.

“That had a great impact,” he said. “They were all very different guys.

“On the third Sunday of Advent (1997), Father James Nash, now pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Easton, Md., came down and I was impressed by him. I said hello after Mass and he introduced himself as the vocations director of the diocese. I remember saying to him, ‘I think I may want to talk to you.’

He gave me his card and that January I gave him a call.”

Father Hurley entered the seminary in the fall of 1998. He was ordained in 2003.

“Ultimately, both vocations are about the care of souls,” he said. “For police, sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to lock them up. Care of souls, that’s our language for priests. But for police, when you think about what they do, that’s what it’s about.”

It’s a job description that’s been consistent throughout Father Hurley’s life. Now that care of souls at parishes in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland will continue to be his work as vicar general and moderator of the curia.

“I’m here to work for the parishes and get things moving for them,” Father Hurley said.

 

Bob Krebs

Bob Krebs has had a double-barreled job for the diocese since 2000, serving as both the secretary of the diocesan Communications Department and director of the Office for Public Relations and Media, jobs that include being diocesan spokesman and producing and hosting a weekly radio show, “Catholic Forum.”

But recently, Krebs said, “Bishop Malooly came to me and said that he wanted to add additional duties to my workload. He wanted me to be the chancellor.

Robert Krebs (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)
Robert Krebs (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)

“I about fell on the floor,” Krebs recalled. “It was kind of a shock. It has always been a clergy member and I really wasn’t expecting it.

“I was and still am extremely honored and I appreciate the enormous trust Bishop Malooly has in me and my abilities, as well as the trust of Msgr. Cini and Father Hurley through all these 14 years.”

Krebs, 55, has served in the curia with only two chancellors, Father Hurley and Bishop John Barres of Allentown.

“Bob Krebs does a lot of things as communications director that often happen in chancery offices,” Bishop Malooly said.

“If you look at chancellors in our metropolitan area, none of them are priests.”

While some chancellors are lawyers, the bishop said this diocese doesn’t need that, “because we’re already well-represented by Tony Flynn and his firm.”

In Baltimore, Sean Caine, the archdiocese’s communications director, is a vice-chancellor. In similar fashion, Bishop Malooly said, Krebs “will be very much involved in communications, in disseminating information and being the face of the diocese in many ways.”

Canon law states that a chancellor’s duties include serving as secretary of the curia and chief archivist for church documents involving the spiritual and temporal matters of the diocese. The office is a resource for priests in obtaining dispensations, permissions and faculties for clergy.

Bishop Malooly said Father McQuaide, the new vice chancellor, will assist the chancellor in fielding questions on canon law and marriage questions.

“Father McQuaide will be of great assistance to me until I get up to speed,” Krebs said. “And, thank God, we have a great archivist in Donn Devine.”

Prior to coming to the Diocese of Wilmington, Krebs worked as a marketing manager for Eternal Word Television Network, helping EWTN launch in Pacific Rim nations of the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.

He and his wife Cindy, who is director of religious education at Holy Cross Parish in Dover, attend St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Hockessin. They have three children — Mark, 29; Jennifer, 26; and Patrick, 20.

The new chancellor is originally from Baltimore, where as a teenage member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, he first met a Baltimore priest, Father W. Francis Malooly.

 

Kelly Anne Donahue

Bishop Malooly has appointed Kelly Anne Donahue to lead the newly designated Department of Human Resources.

Donahue, 46, will also continue as director of human resources.

Kelly Anne Donohue (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)
Kelly Anne Donohue (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)

The designation of human resources as a department “really underscores the importance the bishop, Father Hurley and Msgr. Cini place on the people who work in the diocese and what a contribution they make,” Donahue said. “This solidifies that.”

The new department secretary called her first year with the diocese “fantastic.”

“What I’ve noticed about the employees is that they care about the diocese. They care about the work they do, whether in the cemeteries, Catholic Charities or in the administrative offices. It’s not just a job, they really care about the mission.”

Part of that mission is providing safe environments for children, a task coordinated by Sister Carroll Juliano, in an office that’s part of the Human Resources’ group.

“She does a fabulous job,” Donahue said. The diocesan program, “For the Sake of God’s Children,” is taken “very seriously, shown in the fact we have it as a separate office.”

Prior to joining the diocese, Donahue was the human resources manager at AAA MidAtlantic in Wilmington.

A lifelong member of St. John the Beloved Parish, she holds a degree in organizational communications from the University of Delaware and a master’s in human resources management from Wilmington College.

Donahue and her husband Philip have two children, Philip III, 17, and Patsy, 13.

 

Dr. Lou DeAngelo

The new head of the Catholic Education Department, DeAngelo worked as a teacher, principal and administrator in Catholic education before coming to the Diocese of Wilmington in 2007 as assistant superintendent of schools. He’s been superintendent since October 2012.

The Catholic Education department includes the offices of Catholic Schools, Religious Education, Campus Ministry, and Youth & Young Adult Ministry. The Marriage and Family Life office has been added to the department in the restructuring.

Dr. Lou DeAngelo (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)
Dr. Lou DeAngelo (Jason Minto Photography for The Dialog)

DeAngelo said he’s grateful for the confidence Bishop Malooly has placed in him and “I hope to be of service in carrying out the mission of the diocese and church as it relates to education.”

DeAngelo, 56, said he’s worked with the office heads in his role as superintendent and now, “I really feel blessed to work with them in a more collaborative way.”

He succeeds Michael Stankewicz, who resigned as head of the education department earlier this month, to take a job with the Order of Malta.

“I’m lucky coming into a department that was well organized and smooth running,” DeAngelo said. “I certainly want to move it forward in a direction that’s been set.”

In the Catholic school component of his job, DeAngelo said, “Certainly nobody can compete with us in faith formation and academic formation. We’re always significantly above national and state averages (in standardized test scores) and all our schools lead in having the latest learning tools.”

He said a major goal is to communicate “this good news not only to our current families but to future families” that will send their children to Catholic schools.

Prior to coming to the Diocese of Wilmington, DeAngelo was curriculum director for schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He holds a bachelor’s degree from La Salle University in social studies education, a master’s degree from Temple University in the psychology of reading, and a doctorate in education from Immaculata University in educational leadership.

DeAngelo and his wife Mary Ann are members of Annunciation B.V.M. Parish in Havertown, Pa., where Mary Ann is principal of the Cardinal John P. Foley School, a regional Catholic elementary school.

 

Father Nolan

Father Nolan, 48, who has been pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Elsmere since 2011 and has served as Vicar for Priests, has

Father Timothy M. Nolan
Father Timothy M. Nolan

been given the title Vicar for Clergy in the restructuring.

He retains his previous duties as a liaison for priests to the bishop along with overseeing the offices previously part of the Pastoral Services Department — vocations, deacons and institutional chaplains.

Father Nolan noted the heads of those offices would still have direct access to the bishop but as vicar for clergy he will be “point man for things that don’t require the bishop’s direct involvement.”

 

Father McQuaide

Father McQuaide, who has been appointed the vice chancellor, said he expects to be at the chancery office one day a week or as needed to assist Bob Krebs, the new chancellor.

The associate pastor at Holy Cross Parish in Dover said he expects to be helping with parish requests for sacramental dispensations, such as interfaith marriages, and other paperwork. He will also help answer questions from priests and deacons in the diocese.

Father Joseph W. McQuaide IV
Father Joseph W. McQuaide IV

Ordained in 2011, Father McQuaide recently served on the religious education committee that developed an assessment program for religious ed students in the diocese.