Lorraine Goetzinger, Business Manager, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Harper Woods and St. Michael Pontiac
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How long have you been in professional lay ministry, and how did you choose this career?

I've been in lay ministry all of my life—since I was 15 years old and our pastor at St. Barnabas, my home parish, asked me to help volunteer to help the secretary out for the summer. That progressed to his training me to take his place when he retired and that's how I began. And I never left.

What are some of the things that you do as the business manager for the parish?

I take care of all the parish finances at our Our Lady Queen of Peace in Harper Woods and at St. Michael's in Pontiac. Parish finances include payroll, financial reports, budgets, human resources. I do all the contracting. We've just demolished our old grade school and I took care of all of that and I work daily with the school principal and the pastor there with the tuition and all the problems and the things that we need to take care of for the school.

Also, whenever there are parking lot repairs or things we have to take care of—sound system, other contracted things—that's my responsibility to call the contractors take care of that. Insurance claims, all of that, that's all of my responsibility also. We wear a lot of different hats and most parish employees do.

This sounds like a position that you could easily do for a company out in the public sector and probably earn more money but yet you don't. Why?

I probably could have gotten a job a long time ago out in the "real world" as some people put it. But there is a special draw that keeps you here. In my heart I believe that we are chosen to work where we work and this is my chosen place to be. I don't know that I reach the people like I would like to but there is such a reward with just being able to be there for someone when they walk through the door or to help them for 5 minutes. You can't get that anywhere else, and the flexibility and the versatility of the whole job, the people, the priests, it's just genuinely different. And everyone who works in a parish setting, those are unique people. Those people have callings and it's not like working in that horrible corporate office that you hear about, it's just not like that. I won't say that it's stress-free, because its not, but it's a very caring environment to work in and that makes all the difference in the world. It's not about money it's about here. It's about helping and being there for other people.

It's not about money but how is the compensation in lay ministry?

Our compensation is not at all comparable I'm sure, to the outside world. It's very difficult to put a price tag on what we make in comparison to the people in a corporate setting because the benefits and the things that we get are worth so much more than monetary things. We have to be paid and we are paid. About 10 years ago Cardinal Maida came up with a wage justification program and I was fortunate enough to be at a parish where the stewardship commission took that very seriously. It's there and parishes do have to make sacrifices to keep their employees and employees make sacrifices for the parish, too. But it's not about the money, it just isn't. You don't keep people for the money. There is a special draw that keeps the people there and it's their faith.

What benefits and perks are parts of your compensation package?

We have wonderful benefits. We have all the standard things, the health insurance, the dental insurance and we have a wonderful retirement program. We have vacation time, comp time and everything. But a big benefit that I don't believe is available outside in other places is the flexibility and the ability to almost have your own schedule. You do have hours that you work and that you keep. If something comes up and you have to leave—I know my youngest son has asthmatic really bad—and I can't tell just how many times, when he was a child, I had to just fly out the door and Father never questioned it and never said anything as long as my work was done. Many times I had to come back on nights and weekends, and that was okay, because I knew my job was secure. I knew that was all right. And recently, I just went through an entire thing with my aging parents. My mother passed away in March and it was the same thing, never questioned leaving, they don't question it, it's just all right. It's just different. I could not have kept a job anywhere else like that, and leaving, coming and going.

What is your educational background? How did you prepare to do what you do?

My educational background is limited in a sense that I have an Associates degree. I intended to go on and get my degree as a CPA but I made some life choices which were to get married and have children. So that kind of changed things a little bit but I always stayed on this path. I worked constantly in the church; I never left so I took the place of the gentleman who retired from St. Barnabas and I continued on. And most of my training is work experience and classes one day two days here and there--those kinds of things, but it's all work experience that I have.

What do you like about your job?

I like the people; I really, really enjoy being with people. In a parish setting, even though my title is Business Manager, often times I still have to answer the door, answer the phone, take care of someone if they come in for funeral arrangements or something like that. So there is a big diversity there and you just have to be always open and just there for people. Sometimes that difficult because you may not be having such a good day, but it's been very rewarding, very, very interesting and no days are like the other days, not one.

Is there an official job description for your position?

My job title now is Business Manager but when I started at our Lady Queen of Peace I was the secretary and the bookkeeper and so it has progressed. So I have done everything from receptionist work to registering people in the parish to making funeral arrangements, baptism arrangements to funding, and that's taking care of all the books and the funds and the tuition for school and registering parents for school and all of that

Lorraine, what makes you good as what you do?

I don't know what makes you good. It's the experience, the years and the knowledge, the people you meet. It's just being able to carry that with you, to share that with someone else who doesn't know and hasn't been down that road before.

I have been in this position all my life. Like I said, since I was 15 and I have learned many things. I was fortunate enough to have a pastor that I worked for and worked with for 21 years and he and I worked very well together. He retired and it is those things that I learned, the information that I had to be able to share with a new pastor. When you stay in one place, you have this knowledge and this information you are able to share and take with you. I never look at myself as having specific gifts. It just not just something that you look at yourself, you just do what's in your heart to do, that's all.

Are you called to work in the church? Do you link this call with your baptism?

I believe so.  As a child I always wanted to stay working in the church. I wanted to be a nun. Most of us did back in the 60's and that's what I wanted to do. I never wanted to leave the church. I always felt that there is a great connection with the faith commitment that I have and the job that I do. It's all one in the same.

If you weren't doing what you're doing for your church, what career path might you be following?

If I weren't doing this, I would be teaching children. I am a great believer it all starts when they are very young and they need to be taught the same way I was taught. I was very fortunate in the way I was brought up and I think that is very important. Catholic education is very important but that's what I would be doing is teaching that is why I became a Catechist.

Are there professional challenges in your career?

One of the biggest professional challenges is that people do not accept us as professional people. They don't look at us as having a real job. They have no conception of what goes on in a parish office on a day-to-day basis. It is a very business-like place and it often times has to be that way but there is a lot of work involved and people have no conception of that. They think you just go there and sit there and answer a telephone occasionally. They have no idea.

Can you give some examples of what you mean?

It is very real. The job is very real in itself. You're responsible for everything from their paycheck, to their health insurance to their children's tuition to making sure that the gas and electric bills are paid and that the construction workers get done what they are supposed to be doing. The roof is leaking in church. There are bees in a parish building. There are just all kinds of things that you have to be responsible for on a day-to-day basis for and sometimes you have 10 people clamoring for you at one time because something they wanted didn't get done yet. It's just like keeping up your home. There is always something going haywire or wrong when you least expect it. You always have to have repairs. You always have to fix things and paint things. In our parish setting one person is responsible for a lot of that coordination, and it's me.

You actually do this in two parishes. Can you talk about your own personal job share?

I work in two places. About 12 years ago, we had an assistant pastor who had been assigned as pastor of St. Michael's in Pontiac. He was in need of a bookkeeper and did not know anyone. He asked the current pastor that I worked for could we work this out. And we did and it was temporary. Well it is now 12 years later. I'm still there. I work one day a week in Pontiac at St. Michael and the other 4 days at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Harper Woods doing the same thing for both parishes.

Why do you do that and how does the compensation work out?

The reason I work in Pontiac is little bit different. I went there as a favor to Father Phillip to help him and I have stayed. There is a need there and I never really wanted to leave. It's been a different kind of commitment. I stayed there because it's a commitment to the parish, the needs of the parish.

It's a different area of need. I feel like I can help them a little bit or offer something. A few summers ago I ran a vacation Bible school to help them out. It was one of those things. It was wonderful. It was a lot of fun.

You normally expect a Business Manager; your average CPA would not have a job running a Bible school?

No, most of us that do what I do don't run vacation Bible schools but it was something that I had enjoyed looking into and Father at the time was willing to allow me to go on with that and so I did. I did it again at Our Lady Queen of Peace, too. So it's just a different facet to the job. It's not really part of the job but its something else that I like to do.

So with your job title, you are afforded the opportunity to wear some other hats—or is it an obligation?

I think now we have changed a lot in today's world and church. We don't look at this as a job. We look at this as our ministry. And in this ministry it's not just about processing the paperwork on your desk. It's about so many other things. We share a lot of things and I really enjoy being with children and I could never pursue a career in teaching. This has given me an opportunity to pursue that. And in a little way, being a catechist and helping out with the vacation Bible school--we do all have our own job responsibilities and no one really steps into anyone else's area but everyone is willing to help the other, always.

What do family and friends think about your choice of a career?

It was tough when I first started out when I was very young. My first husband hated it. He absolutely hated my job. He wanted me to quit and get a real job. And I have been since remarried and my husband now always tells me my job is who I am. It is what I am about. My parents were always very proud of it and I have been too. I always been very happy to work where I am and not really worry about what others think about where I work or where I am.

What would you say to encourage others to consider a job such as yours?

I would encourage anyone who has a commitment to their faith life or at least are open to that faith life, to seriously consider it. It's not in any way, shape, or form going to meet up with the standards of the corporate world but there is so much else that you get from working in a parish setting and just the knowledge that we have of how our church works and how our church survives and has survived through the years and being part of that integral support for the parish priest which is so desperately needed right now is very rewarding. It's very, very much a part of why I stay--the support that you can be for that parish.

What is the downside of what you do?

The downside, there is never enough time to get everything done that you need to do but I don't think that's any different in my job than any other job anywhere. Other than that, it's just sometimes not being able to help all the way. You can only do so much and then it's out of your hands and you can't do any more. That's hard, that's difficult but for the most part, I don't have very many down things other than not being able to get everything done that I like to do.

What are some of the hats you wear in life?

My name is Lorraine Goetzinger and I am the current Business Manger at our Lady Queen of Peace in Harper Woods and St. Michael in Pontiac. I am also a wife, a mom, a grandmother, a catechist and a homemaker.

Is there anything or anybody that was a main influence in your career choice?

The person that was most influential with my career was the gentleman that trained me when I was very young. He believed things that I had no idea even existed and so many times he showed me many of the tricks of the trade--the math things that he taught me. Things he would explained to me and things that he made me do over and over again that I thought were of no use have come back to me time and time again and has been very useful to me. I'm very grateful for his belief in me.

This gentleman was the parish secretary at St. Barnabas back in the late 60's and early 70's and he just took me under his wing and he gave me all the confidence and courage to continue on and he instilled in me the belief that I could do this for a living, and I have.

How long do you see yourself working in lay ministry?

I sometimes go back and forth with this. I'm not sure how long I would want to do this because I get to the point right now, I'm established enough that I could retire 5 years from the diocese and that's a very nice thing. I don't know what I would do with myself though. This has been all my life and I have one career path I would like to look at. I'm not too sure that I'm ready for that change.

Is there career mobility for those who are looking for it in your line of work?

Oh, sure there is a lot of mobility. I have chosen to stay in one place. I have chosen to be where I am at that one place. There are a lot of openings out there. There is a lot of availability out there and a lot of it depends on what you are willing to do and what you willing to work at and how you willing to approach it and the people you want to work with.

Now things are different. I worked for 21 years for one particular pastor. He retired and then we changed hands twice but the pastor that I work for now is very encouraging and very supportive and we have talked a lot about my ministry even changing to the point of me going into grief ministry. And he's extremely supportive of everything that I do and what I have done and what I continued to do even though it may mean some changes within the parish for me.

Is there an Archdiocesan network that supports you in the technical aspect of your work?

I have often times called the Downtown office the finance office and have been very well guided with a lot of things. There are few people there that I have become very good friends with—basically through telephone conversations--who have walked me through situations that even though I been here for a long time at the parish, there is always something that comes up that I'm not sure how to handle or how to deal with and there're very supportive. I have never had an occasion where someone in the downtown offices has not returned or call or been there or even come out to the office and help me walk through something. There's always that support. There is the support of the other parish bookkeepers in the local area. I mean we all work together. There is always someone that you can call, always someone that can help you through a situation if you need it.

When you do leave, are there people who could step into your ministry?

Not right now. Absolutely there is such a need because those of us, who have been in the ministry for a long time, eventually will be retiring and leaving and we need people to come forward and do the things that I myself have done and many others have done and all those doors are open. They are there. The positions are there. There are a lot of parishes in the diocese that are going to need that help.

It's a wonderful job. It's a very rewarding job. I wouldn't stay if it weren't. It's kept me going for a long time.

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