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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Special day evokes praise for priests

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 24, 2008

Detroit — With Priesthood Sunday coming up Oct. 26, it was easy to find parishioners eager to express their appreciation of their pastors in a sampling of parishes around the Archdiocese of Detroit.

"He's one terrific human being," Margie Nelson says of Fr. Douglas Terrien, her pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish in Lapeer.

"He's there whenever you need him, and he takes the time to talk to you and makes you feel you're very important to him," she says.

Vaughn Adams, parish council president at St. Matthew Parish in Detroit, says of his pastor, Fr. Duane Novelly, "If the job of a priest is to inspire the faithful to follow Christ in living out the two great commandments, I think Fr. Duane does a fabulous job."

Adams, a retired University of Detroit Mercy philosophy professor, has high praise for Fr. Novelly's Sunday homilies, which he delivers from memory standing among the congregation. "And on weekdays, he does a great job speaking right off the cuff," Adams continues.

Likewise whenever Fr. Novelly is administering other sacraments or conducting funerals, Adams says "he is always so sincere in what he's doing."

"Fr. Duane has developed a real rapport with the people of St. Matthew. He knows everybody by name and tries to greet everybody each Sunday. And he encourages people to go out and do great things," Adams adds. Bill Suliot, a member of St. Christopher Parish in Marysville, remembers how "my wife used to have to drag me to Mass." That was before they took a friend's suggestion that they go hear Fr. Art Baranowski at St. Christopher Parish in Marysville.

Now, for about 11 years he and his wife, Barb, have been going every week "He's been very influential in our lives," Bill Suliot says about Fr. Baranowski.

More than 20 years before, the Suliots had been part of a small church community as members of St. Lucy Parish in St. Clair Shores, and had missed that experience since moving to the Port Huron area.

At St. Christopher, they not only again found themselves in a parish that encouraged small church communities – in which groups of eight to 12 people get together regularly for prayer and Scripture study – but with a pastor who has been one of the nation's preeminent authors and promoters of the concept.

"Fr. Art is just incredible – he has a great vision for the Church, and is a great communicator," Suliot adds. Dennis Suddon, a member of St. Peter Parish in Mount Clemens, says Fr. Michael Cooney is not only a great pastor-administrator, but also an inspiration to his parishioners.

"His homilies draw people in, and he brings the people together. If every parish had a pastor like Fr. Mike, the Catholic Church would be in great shape," Suddon adds.

Alexander Sebastian, a member of St. Gerald Parish in Farmington, says he has a "wonderful pastor" in Fr. Ronald Browne. "One of the things I appreciate most about Fr. Browne is that he's a holy, reverent priest, and he is very faithful to the Magisterium," he says.

Sebastian says he appreciates Fr. Browne's concern that parishioners should be well-educated about their faith: "He really draws us closer to Holy Mother Church and the values and traditions of our Catholic faith."

And he says he and other parishioners are grateful to Fr. Browne for introducing Eucharistic Adoration and benediction into the parish.

In addition, Sebastian says Fr. Browne "is a great role model to our children and the rest of us."