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Pastoral associate says CSA support crucial to training

By Robert Delaney
Of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 29, 2005

FARMINGTON HILLS — Looking back on how she came to be pastoral associate at St. Fabian Parish, Celia St. Charles says she not only trained for the job at an institution supported by the Catholic Services Appeal, but also received tuition assistance from the CSA.

And even today, she says she frequently makes use of CSA-supported services in doing her work. And that work keeps her very busy in a 2,400-family parish in Farmington Hills served by only one priest – its pastor, Fr. Brian Chabala.

Celia St. Charles, pastoral associate at St. Fabian, Farmington Hills, trained for her job with support from the Catholic Services Appeal.

St. Charles coordinates the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program at the parish, trains lectors and eucharistic ministers, coordinates adult education programs, and meets with bereaved families to help them plan funeral liturgies.

"Celia's position as pastoral associate here is one that has been deeply accepted by the parish of St. Fabian, and has become really an integral part of who we are in ministering to the needs of the parish," says Fr. Chabala.

"In education or sacramental assistance, or in any other way, Celia has been able to offer her own talents and abilities as a lay woman in the Church," he adds.

St. Charles went from being a parent volunteer to a staff member at St. Fabian Parish back in 1994. The mother of four children (all now in their 20s), she served as assistant youth minister, then youth minister, before becoming pastoral associate.

"After Fr. Brian Chabala came here (in February 1996), I started asking all kinds of theological questions, and he said, 'Why don't you take some classes?'" St. Charles recalls.

So, she began taking classes at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, "but the more classes I took, the more I felt the need to take more – to know more," she says.

"I talked with Fr. Brian about going for a degree in pastoral ministry, and my husband was hugely supportive of it," St. Charles says. (Her husband, Neil St. Charles, died in October 2000.)

The seminary is among the institutions and ministries supported by the annual CSA collection. "I loved it; it was wonderful to be able to explore my faith in an open setting. Most of the teachers were willing to explore whatever questions we students had, and gave us good, solid Catholic theology," she says.

St. Charles says she found it very encouraging to be there with other lay students. "More of us need to take an active role in our Church, and it was wonderful to see the diversity of the students – coming from every walk of life and economic level. It's what Church should be," she says.

The tuition break she received because of her involvement in catechetical leadership in the parish – made possible through grants from CSA monies – was important for her, "because I had two kids in college and two in high school at the time." In 2000 she graduated with an associate of arts degree in pastoral ministry.

"If I hadn't gotten that break in tuition, it would have been much more difficult to achieve my degree, and I know for a fact I wouldn't have got it done as quickly," St. Charles says.

Of her work as a pastoral associate, she says, "It is just so much of a privilege to watch someone else's faith grow, and for me personally it's been very fulfilling, because I have grown so much." Her involvement with CSA-funded ministries did not end when she graduated as she is in frequent contact with the archdiocesan Departments of Education and Parish Life & Services – both of which receive their primary funding from the CSA.

"Just today, I called the Worship Office (part of Parish Life & Services). They are going to come out and give a workshop on eucharistic ministry certification and lector training and certification, St. Charles adds.