Some good news here.

Bishop Joseph Martino announced extensive appointments of clergy throughout the diocese, with substantial shuffling in Luzerne County. Here is how the changes affect area churches.

Rev. Mark Balczeniuk will leave his post as pastor of Transfiguration in West Hazleton and become Eastern Pastoral Region Vicar, living at the Villa of Our Lady Retreat House, Mount Pocono. Rev. David Betts will leave his residence status at Sacred Heart of Jesus/St.John in Wilkes-Barre to become administrator at Transfiguration and St. Francis of Assisi, West Hazleton. Current St. Francis Pastor Rev. John Ruth will become administrator of two Scranton churches.

Monsignor Francis Beeda will change from pastor to pastor emeritus at St. Joseph and St. Stanislaus, Hazleton. Rev. Richard Cirba will leave his post as pastor at Holy Trinity, Swoyersville, to replace Beeda as pastor in the Hazleton parishes, and will be joined by Rev. Balireddy Ponnapati as assistant Pastor, who will leave St. Nicholas, Wilkes-Barre. The current assistant at the to Halzeton churches, Rev. Bryan Wright, will leave for a Mount Pocono parish. Rev. William Karle will leave his post as pastor at Holy Saviour, Wilkes-Barre, to become pastor at Holy Trinity and Holy name/St. Mary in Swoyersville. Current Holy Name pastor Rev. Louis Grippe will become pastor at Most Precious Blood, Hazleton. Current Most Precious Blood administrator Rev. Wilfredo Comellas will become assistant Pastor at St. Aloysius and St. Casimir, Wilkes-Barre, and Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Hanover Township. Rev. Kenneth Seegar will come from a church in Susquehanna County to be administrator at Holy Saviour.

Rev. Vincent Dang will move from pastor of Holy Family, Sugar Notch, to Pastor, Saint Frances X. Cabrini, Carverton, replacing Rev. James Shimsky who has been administrator. Shimsky is being assigned to two parishes north of Scranton. Rev. Joseph Kakareka will leave his post as administrator of Ss. Peter and Paul, Avoca, to take over as pastor at Holy Family. St. Mary, Avoca, Pastor Rev. Phillip Sladicka will also be pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul.

Rev. Joseph Evanko will leave his post as pastor at St. John Bosco, Conyngham, and Good Shepherd, Butler Township, to be pastor at St. Jude, Mountaintop. Current St. John, Stroudsburg Pastor Rev. John Lambert will be pastor at St. John Bosco and Good Shepherd. Current St. Jude administrator Rev. Michael Quinnan will be pastor in a Monroe County church.

Rev. Gregory Finn will leave his post as pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pittston, to be pastor, Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, Harleigh, St. Gabriel, Hazleton, St. Nazarius, Pardeesville, and St. Mary, Lattimer The pastor at those parishes, Rev. Peter O’Rourke, will become pastor at St. Patrick, Scranton. Current St. Rocco, Pittston, Pastor Rev. Daniel Schwebs will be administrator at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The four Hazleton area churches will also get two assistant pastors, Rev. Johnson Kochuparambil from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pittston, and Rev. Victor Leon, from Nativity of Our Lord, Scranton, and lose current assistant pastor Rev. Gregory Villaescusa to parishes near Towanda. The two Pittston churches will get Rev. Jackson Pinhiero as assistant pastor, from the St. Joseph’s Oblates Seminary.

Rev. Richard Fox, pastor at Holy Family in Luzerne, will move to St. Eulalia, Elmhurst. Rev. Michael Zipay will take over in Luzerne, arriving from a South Williamsport parish.

Rev. Duane Gavitt will leave his post as pastor at St. Aloysius and St. Casimir, Wilkes-Barre, to be pastor at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Freeland, where current pastor Re. John Melnick is leaving for the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas. Eastern Pastoral Region Episcopal Vicar Rev. Andrew R. Sinnott will replace Gavitt at the two Wilkes-Barre churches and at Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Hanover Twp., where the current administrator, Rev. Paul Pudhota, will leave to become administrator at Holy Trinity, Wilkes-Barre and Holy Cross, Hanover Township. The current pastor there, Rev. Theodore Obaza, will become pastor emeritus.

Rev. Joseph Kearney, current pastor at Blessed Sacrament, St. Francis and St. John the Baptist in Wilkes-Barre will also be pastor at S. Dominic in Wilkes-Barre, where current pastor Rev. William Culnane will be pastor emeritus.

Rev. William Langan will leave his post as pastor at St. Francis of Assisi and St. Joseph, Nanticoke, to be pastor at St. John the Evangelist and St. Mary Magdalen, Honesdale. Rev. James Nash, current pastor of four other Nanticoke Parishes, will add St. Francis and St. Joseph to his list.

Rev. Michael Marchetti will leave a Montoursville parish to be pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows, West Wyoming, and St. Joseph, Wyoming, where the current pastor, Rev. James Walsh, will leave to be administrator of St. Francise of Assisi in Scranton.
Gate of Heaven, Dallas, pastor Rev. Kevin Mulhern will leave to be pastor at Our Lady of the Abingtons, Dalton. Rev. Daniel Toomey will leave a post in Montdale, to be pastor at Gate of Heaven and Our Lady of Victory, Harveys Lake.

The diocesan list of changes is here