 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
November
21, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 20Oakland,
CA
New pastors
appointed for
Concord, Fremont parishes
Corpus Christi
Parish in Fremont and St. Agnes Parish in Concord have new pastors, replacing
priests who have moved to other assignments.
Father Salvador Macias
Father Salvador Macias became pastor at Corpus Christi Parish in Fremont
on Oct. 1, succeeding Father Stephan Kappler, who had been parochial administrator
and is now parochial vicar at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Berkeley.
Father Macias, 50, a native of Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico, received
his early seminary training in Aguascalientes, Mexico. He completed his
studies for the priesthood at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas,
and returned to Aguascalientes for his ordination in 1982.
After working for several years with the Spanish-speaking community of
Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Union City and St. Leander Parish in
San Leandro, he served as an associate pastor at Santa Paula Parish in
Fremont, St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Berkeley, and Corpus Christi
Parish in Fremont.
He was pastor at St. Peter Martyr Parish in Pittsburg from 1991 –
1995 and at St. Jarlath in Oakland from 1998 – 2004.
Father Jan Rudzewicz
After a short tenure at St. Jarlath Parish in Oakland, Father Jan Rudzewicz
became the new pastor at St. Agnes Parish in Concord on Nov. 15. He succeeded
Father George Mockel, who was named vicar general and moderator of the
Curia of the Oakland Diocese earlier this year.
A native of Gajrowskie, in the northeastern part of Poland, Father Rudzewicz,
48, studied at the Society of Christ Seminary in Poznan and earned a master’s
degree from the Catholic University in Lublin before his ordination to
the priesthood in May 1983.
After working for three years in two parishes in western Poland, he moved
to California and became an associate pastor at the Pope John Paul II
Polish Pastoral Center in Yorba Linda. He also worked with Polish immigrants
in parishes in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Toronto, Canada. He was a pastor
in East Toronto and at a large ethnic parish of more than 3,000 families
in Michigan.
During a sabbatical in the Bay Area, Father Rudzewicz studied at the Vatican
II Institute for Priestly Formation in Menlo Park and at Oakland’s
Holy Names University. He became parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish
in Pinole in 1994, where he “experienced and enjoyed a variety of
backgrounds, languages and lifestyles,” he said in an interview
last year.
He later served as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in
Fremont in 2002. “I witnessed there a real struggle of forming one
multi-ethnic parish from what had been two (St. Leonard and Santa Paula),”
he said.
Despite his short stay at St. Jarlath, Father Rudzewicz, who became a
U.S. citizen in 1994 and joined the Oakland Diocese last year, developed
a strong affection for the diverse community. “Being myself an immigrant
born and ordained in Poland, I really feel like one of them,” he
said.
Father
Salvador Macias
Father
Jan Rudzewicz
