Diocesan Pastoral Congress: St. James the Just Parish

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Members of St. James the Just Parish engage in a small-group discussion during their Sept. 18 Pastoral Congress.

OGDEN — The message of the 2021 Pastoral Congress presenter could have been written specifically for St. James the Just parishioners, said those who met Sept. 18 in the parish’s gathering space.

In his keynote presentation to the English-speaking audience, Brother Loughlan Sofield, CT spoke of loss and healing during this post-pandemic time. This message hit home for St. James the Just parishioners, who in the past three years have had three pastors and one priest assigned as sacramental minister.

Their current pastor, Fr. David Trujillo, has been with the parish since July. He replaced Fr. Reynato (Rene) Rodillas, who died of COVID-19 in January. From January through July, the parish was served by Fr. Eleazar Silva, who was the sacramental minister.

At the time of Fr. Rodillas’ death, he had been pastor at the parish for only about 18 months; the previous pastor, Fr. Erik Richtsteig, had served there for 16 years.

In his presentation for the Pastoral Congress, Br. Loughlan said that people need to take time to grieve loss (see the story, p. 8), and the Church needs to help with grieving.

“Wow! Somebody sent Br. Loughlan our story,” said John Valdez, who organized the parish event.

Following the video presentations and small-group discussion, Fr. Trujillo asked those present to explain what their quest will be as they take the message from the Pastoral Congress  into the community.

Each person had an individual quest. Eileen Hollywood, one of the catechists for the parish, said she would like for the kids they teach to know their own gifts so that they can go out and continue to spread their gifts and hopefully become better Catholics.”

For Anne Paul and Christina Trujillo, the quest will be more personal. Paul said she is hoping to draw her sister back to the Church, while Trujillo said she wants to set a better example as a way to encourage others to become more involved in the Church. Similarly, Layne Carver said he wants to get to know more people in the parish, and he wants people to know the truth of the Catholic faith.