Weekend of June 15 -16, 2024

Dear Friends,

It is with a great measure of sadness, but also with a heart filled with gratitude, that I write to you for the final time as your pastor. I have been blessed to have had wonderful assignments in my life as a priest, and I truly believe that all of my assignments in my thirty years since ordination have helped to shape me into the priest I am today, and that is perhaps most true of Saint Timothy’s, where I have lived and ministered as your pastor for the past eleven years (longer than anywhere else in my priesthood), as well as Saint Bartholomew’s, where I have ministered for the past two and a half years.

These years living and working among you have been a time of great blessing for me. I have been privileged to work with many fine people, and I believe our collaboration has made our parish outstanding in many ways. I recognize in a particular way the priests with whom I have been privileged to live and work, and I thank Father Noone, Father Lane, Father Jack, and Father Dalton for their fine service to our people, their cooperation and collaboration with me, as well as for their patience and understanding with my deficiencies. I thank as well Deacon Jerry, for his devotion and tireless service to the good people of Saint Bartholomew, and for his constant willingness to serve however and wherever he is needed. I offer my love and gratitude to our religious sisters, who have blessed our parish with their ministry and their presence, and have blessed my life with their love and their friendship. Our pastoral staff and our administrative staff have made my life easier in countless ways, and I lovingly thank them from the bottom of my heart for their loyalty to me and for their dedication to our parish. Our school is the best anywhere, and that is due in large part to the fine administrators and faculty and staff members who serve our children selflessly every day. Our liturgical ministers have assisted in making our liturgies second-to-none, and as I have said many times, it is what we do in church Sunday after Sunday that is most important to our life as a community of faith. I thank them for their devotion to this most important work of the Church. I extend my sincere gratitude to all those who volunteer in any way here at Saint Timothy’s and Saint Bartholomew’s; in every way you have made my life painless, and have enriched the life of our parishes in numerous ways. I have always been supported 100% by our committed pastoral council and finance council members, who so many times have been the backbone of our efforts here in every area of parish life. I have always felt the encouragement and cooperation of everyone here with whom I have had the honor of working and collaborating, always for the benefit of our great parish community.

I believe, however, that my greatest honor and joy as your pastor has been to be able to share in each of your lives. It has been my privilege to share in many of your most sacred and important moments, whether those moments were baptizing your children, witnessing your marriages, burying your beloved dead, visiting your sick, or simply sharing with you the joys and the sorrows, the successes and the difficulties of your lives. You have allowed me to become a member of your family, and for that great honor I thank you most sincerely. I am truly humbled by the trust you have placed in me as your pastor, in allowing me to share in an intimate way in those most significant moments of your lives of faith. I am certainly the better, as a priest and as a man, for having done so.

I have worked hard and tried my best as your pastor. If I have failed in any way, especially through my own human weakness, I beg your forgiveness. I thank you for your patience and understanding in dealing with my personal shortcomings and limitations. I believe that we have accomplished many great things over these eleven years, some of them visible and tangible, but most of them known only to God and us. I believe these accomplishments are great because they have helped all of us become more aware of the fact that God loves us and that he wants to share that love with us in every way possible, especially through the life of his only-begotten Son, Jesus.

As I leave you, I beg you to continue to live as one family, one people, united in our Catholic faith, as well as you have during my time with you. It is that unity in Jesus that will continue to strengthen these two great parishes as one community of faith, as we all continue our pilgrimage to eternity. I leave you with one important request: that you welcome Father John Hutter, your new pastor, with the same love and support that you have showered upon me for eleven years. He is a good man and a good priest, who, with your openness and encouragement, will certainly become, as I have, your father and friend.
           
If there is ever anything I can do for you, remember that I am always here for you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out. Saint Peter’s and West Brandywine are really not that far, and we will be for ever united in the faith and in the love that we share.

Once again, from Ralphie and myself, thank you.

Know that you and those you love will always be remembered in my Masses and my prayers.

                                                                                    Love and prayers,
                                                                                    Father Olivere