January 8, 2010
Clergy appointments made at Good Shepherd, diocesan vocations office
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
A new parish assignment and a new diocesan vocations director are among clergy appointments announced during the first days of the new year.
• Father Zach Etienne will become pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Evansville, leaving his current position at St. Mary Church in Ireland, effective Wednesday, Jan. 20.
• Father Alex Zenthoefer will be the new diocesan director of vocations, while continuing his ministry at Mater Dei and Memorial high schools, and at Holy Rosary Church, all in Evansville.
Father Zach Etienne’s appointment leaves open the pastoral leadership of St. Mary Church in Ireland.
Father Zenthoefer’s new position relieves one of Father Bernie Etienne’s multiple responsibilities, after more than 14 years as head of the vocations office. Father Bernie Etienne continues in his current assignment as pastor of Holy Rosary Church in Evansville and dean of the Evansville East Deanery.
Father Zachary Etienne, 45, was ordained June 5, 2004. His first assignment was as associate pastor of St. Joseph Church in Jasper.
In June 2005, he was named associate pastor of St. Mary Church in Ireland, and then pastor of the parish in June 2006.
Good Shepherd Church has been under the leadership of Deacon Ed Wilkerson as pastoral life coordinator, and Father Attila Fröhlich as resident sacramental minister, from September 2006 until late in 2009.
The parish has 774 families, and includes a K-8 school with 327 students.
The parish has sustained rapid growth since its establishment “in the bean patch” in 1955.
St. Mary Church in Ireland, established in 1891, has 1,031 families and around 500 students in religious education programs.
Father Alex Zenthoefer, 30, was ordained June 4, 2005. His first assignment was as associate pastor of St. Joseph and St. Theresa churches in Evansville. He was named associate pastor of Holy Rosary Church in September 2007.
Since 2008, Father Zenthoefer has served as chaplain at Mater Dei and Memorial high schools in Evansville, while continuing as associate pastor at Holy Rosary Church.
In his blog on the diocesan vocations website, Father Zenthoefer noted that Father Bernie Etienne, as vocations director, “has helped many young women and men, including me, to discern where God is calling them.”
Father Zenthoefer will take over as vocations director on Jan. 21, and said he is “honored by the appointment and I look forward to serving the people of our diocese in this capacity and helping those who are seeking to live out their baptismal call to serve as priest, prophet and king.”
Father Zenthoefer will continue his responsibilities at the parish and both high schools for the rest of this school year.
“At the end of this school year, however, I will no longer serve as chaplain for Mater Dei, but will continue my duties at Memorial,” he said on his blog. “I simply do not have the time to continue all of these positions and I regret that I will no longer be able to serve my Alma Mater. I am grateful to be able to spend one more semester with my fellow Wildcats, walking the halls where I grew up.”
Father Bernie Etienne, 51, was ordained June 5, 1993. His first assignment was as associate at St. Joseph Church in Jasper; he was named director of the diocesan vocations team in 1995.
He was named pastor of St. Joseph Church in Princeton in 1996, adding Blessed Sacra-ment Church in Oakland City to his pastoral reponsibilities in 1999. He became pastor of Holy Rosary Church in 2006.
Along with his parish duties, Father Etienne also served as diocesan chaplain for Southwes-tern Indiana Teens Encounter Christ, dean of the Princeton Deanery while assigned to pari-shes in Gibson County, and since 2008, as dean of the Evansville East Deanery.
Holy Rosary Church in Evansville, was founded in 1950 in an area that saw rapid growth in population. The parish currently has 1,317 families and operates a pre-K-8 school.