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Press Room for the Diocese of Phoenix

Two Will Be Ordained to the Priesthood on June 1

(May 28 Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix) – Most Reverend Thomas J. O'Brien, Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, will ordain Fathers Daniel Vollmer and Tomasz Wesolowski to the priesthood on Saturday, June 1, 2002 at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral, 6321 North 27th Avenue in Phoenix at 10:00 a.m.

Father Daniel Vollmer was born on October 15, 1963 in Rochester, NY and moved to Arizona in February of 1964. His parents, Carl and Margaret, reside in Cottonwood, AZ and he is the fifth of seven children. Father Vollmer attended Cartwright Elementary School from 1969-1975 and Borman Junior High from 1975-1977. He graduated from Maryvale High School in 1981 and received a B.S.E.E. from the University of Kansas in 1986. He was accepted into Officer Candidate School at Fort Still, OK in 1988. Two years later, while still in the military, he applied and was accepted into the MBA program at Northern Arizona University where he was voted the Most Helpful CBA Staff Member in 1994 and 1996 – the same year he also received the Peer Recognition Award.

Throughout his time in Flagstaff, Father Vollmer was involved at the Newman Center as a Eucharistic Minister and Lector, presiding at Communion Services and R.C.I.A. It was during his time at the Newman Center that he first began to consider priesthood. He will receive his Masters of Divinity from St. Meinrad Seminary in May, 2002.

Father Tomasz Wesolowski was born into a Catholic family on January 7, 1970 in Warszawa, Poland. He graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1995 with a degree in Special Education and entered the Catholic Seminary at Lowicz where he completed two years of Philosophy. Because of his desire to travel and experience different cultures, he received permission from the Vocation Director of the Polish to transfer to Michigan where he spent approximately one year before pursuing further training in the Diocese of Brooklyn. During his four months there, he attended ESL classes at St. John’s University and has continued to take ESL classes throughout his seminary training.

Father Wesolowski was interviewed and accepted into the Diocese by Bishop O’Brien in 1998. He will receive his Masters of Divinity from St. Meinrad Seminary in May, 2002.

Diocese of Phoenix Welcomes New Coordinator for the
Office of Black Catholic Ministry

(May 9 Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix) – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix welcomes Mrs. Jacquelin Scott Rideau as the new Coordinator of the Office of Black Catholic Ministry effective March 1, 2002.

Mrs. Rideau has been an active participant within the Black Catholic community since 1989 when Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien founded and commissioned the Committee of Black Catholic Concerns to improve dialogue with Black Catholics at the diocesan level. In 1992, the Committee participated in the National Black Catholic Congress in New Orleans with more than 3,000 Black Catholic clergy and lay people. That same year, Rideau knew that the Committee would someday grow to be a full-fledged department within the diocese. In 2000, that became a reality and the Committee of Black Catholic Concerns became the Office of Black Catholic Ministry (OBCM).

Rideau credits the OBCM with giving Black Catholics in the diocese visibility. Through the OBCM-sponsored Unity Mass held every third Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at St. Pius X, 809 South 7th Avenue in downtown Phoenix, she says “Black Catholics have a place to come together and get rejuvenated to go back to their parish” which is why the Unity Mass was started in 1995 and has attendees from as far away as Tucson to Surprise.

Mrs. Rideau says that the primary way she would like to contribute to OBCM is by establishing “a solid organization that can continue forever regardless of who is in this position. So solid that the focus will continue…” In the future, Rideau desires to see Black Catholics in the diocese have “representation on every Diocesan board at every level.” She says that the department must form a more concrete organization and have a definite plan with clearly defined goals.

Some of those immediate goals are to focus on (1) having St. Pius X turned over to the Black Catholic community, (2) finding all of the registered Black Catholic families, and (3) producing more events that are important to the diocese. She says that right now the only OBCM-sponsored event that is truly recognized within the diocese is the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mass held each January. To the critics who wonder why Black Catholics honor Dr. King who was not Catholic, she says, “Because he was a man of God and everything he did was for all people.”

Rideau wants Black Catholics to know they have a voice in everything that is being proposed and that the OBCM is a mechanism for their questions and concerns.

Rideau says Bishop O’Brien “has been extremely supportive from the beginning”. She further says, “I look forward to his continued support which I know will be forthcoming”.

Recognizing that the primary function of the OBCM is to give Black Catholics an organized voice, she says to them, “Be not discouraged. Speak up when you feel people are trying to brush you aside and realize your worth to the Catholic community, to the whole Church. And don’t forget we all make up the Body of Christ. Don’t lose sight of that."

Catholic Parishioners Asked to Support Annual Catholic Communication Campaign

(May 2Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix) -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix will participate in the annual, national Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC) collection on Sunday, June 9, 2002. This year, the focus of the collection is on the youth and its theme is Shine a Light to Give your Children a Bright Tomorrow. “Images of great suffering have come to us through the media but also a sense of prayer, community, and courage. We, at the CCC, wanted to respond to the specific needs of this world-wide crisis by conceiving, developing and implementing a campaign of hope and courage for the future of the church – the children,” states Bishop Joseph Galante, Chairman of the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Communication is a critical aspect of the mission of the Catholic Church and through the generous contributions of Catholic parishioners, the Church can more fully utilize the tools of communication to evangelize, educate, and inform. Through the implementation of an annual collection, the Catholic Communication Campaign reaches individuals through radio, video, television, and Internet. In the past year, along with several other accomplishments, the CCC was noted for its award-winning documentaries such as The Face: Jesus in Art, which premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York last spring and still airs on PBS affiliates. The CCC also launched Catholic Radio Weekly and continues a series of English and Spanish public service announcements.

Fifty percent of the funds raised in this collection will remain in the Diocese of Phoenix while the remainder will be sent to the USCCB for the continued production of national projects. Locally, the funds will be allocated to the work of the Communication Ministry in the Diocese.