Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Archbishop names Paul Martodam CEO of Catholic Charities

Paul Martodam heads Catholic Charities of Phoenix, previously worked in St. Cloud

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Contact: Rebecca Lentz
612.664.8556

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Contact: Dennis B. McGrath, Director of Communications
651.291.4406
mcgrathd@archspm.org

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – November 9, 2009 – The Most Rev. John C. Nienstedt, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, appointed Paul Martodam of Phoenix, AZ, as the new CEO of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The Archbishop and Board of Directors will formally introduce Martodam during Catholic Charities’ Annual Meeting Dec. 3. He will begin his duties as CEO Jan. 1, 2010.

Martodam is CEO of Catholic Charities Community Services in Phoenix, a position he has held since 1993. During his time in Arizona, Martodam increased the organization’s revenues from about $8 million to more than $35 million annually and created several new innovative programs to meet the needs of Arizona’s changing population.

“I am indeed pleased to welcome Mr. Paul Martodam as the new chief executive of our Archdiocesan Catholic Charities. A native of Minnesota, he has served the diocese of Crookston, St. Cloud, and most recently Phoenix in the work of Catholic Charities,” Nienstedt says. “Besides the obvious administrative skills that he has gained over these years, he has a deep spirituality that motivates his enthusiasm for this ministry. I look forward to working with him in the years to come.”

Nienstedt appointed Martodam to the position with the unanimous recommendation of the Catholic Charities Board of Directors Search Committee. The committee conducted a national search to fill the top position at the Twin Cities largest social services agency.

“It is with great humility that I accept the challenge of leadership of this great organization. The outstanding ministry of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis to people who are homeless, children and seniors dealing with significant life issues and struggling families is recognized nationally,” Martodam says. “I am eager to engage with our many partners in government, business and philanthropy to build community capacity to reduce poverty and human suffering.”

He will take over from Robert Spinner, who has served as interim CEO since June 2009. Prior to his position as CEO in Phoenix, Martodam served as assistant director of Catholic Charities Community Services of Phoenix. Between 1980 and 1992, he was assistant director of administration for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud. He holds a bachelor’s in psychology from St. Louis University and a Master’s in Public Administration/NonProfit Administration from St. Cloud State University. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Charities USA and served on the board of the Council of Accreditation of Children and Family Services and is a founding member of Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition.

“The position attracted many extremely well-qualified candidates from social services, business, government and other fields,” says Tom Horner, a member of Catholic Charities Board of Directors who chaired the search committee. “The outstanding field of candidates speaks to the high regard in which Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis is held in Minnesota and around the country.

“We were especially gratified that so many were eager to lead Catholic Charities during a time when demand for our services is at a record high, and our ability to meet the demand is challenged by the economy and cuts in public funding,” Horner says. “We remain hopeful this diverse group of leaders continues to engage with us to find new and innovative ways to meet the needs of our community.”

In the last 12 months, Catholic Charities saw unprecedented demand from people needing help meeting their basic needs. In September, visits to Catholic Charities food shelf increased 91 percent compared to September 2008. The two main overnight shelters for adults are full.

Catholic Charities, the human services arm of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, is structured as a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. It operates on an annual budget of $36 million, serving about 35,000 people without regard to their faith. The CEO of Catholic Charities is appointed by the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Martodam will be the first non-priest CEO since a 1977 merger of multiple Catholic social service agencies created Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis is a member of Catholic Charities USA and was honored by the Charities Review Council for meeting the Council's strict accountability standards, demonstrating responsibility, integrity and transparency as a non-profit organization. Further information on that approval can be found at smartgivers.org. Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis is fully accredited by the Council on Accreditation. More information on Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis can be found at cctwincities.org.

Appointment of New Vicar General, Moderator of the Curia

I have appointed Father Peter Laird, until now Vice Rector of St. Paul Seminary, to the position of Vicar General of the Archdiocese and Moderator of the Curia. He will succeed Bishop-elect Paul Sirba in December, when the new bishop takes up his responsibilities in the Diocese of Duluth.

Father Laird has served on the seminary faculty for the past nine years. Following his ordination in 1997, he served as Parochial Vicar at St. Olaf Catholic Church in Minneapolis. He has an S.T. D. degree from the Alphonsian Academy in Rome, an S.T.L degree from the Pope John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University in Rome, a Masters of Theology and a Masters of Divinity degree from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, a J.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin, an M.A. in the Humanities from Saint John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and a BA degree in history from the University of Saint Thomas.

More recently, in addition to his teaching duties at the Saint Paul Seminary and his weekend pastoral duties in parishes throughout the Archdiocese, he serves, along with Father John Bauer of the Basilica, as co-chair of our Strategic Planning Committee, a role he will continue.

As disappointed as I am to lose the assistance of Bishop-elect Sirba, I am delighted to be replacing him with a priest who has the experience, intellect and devotion that Father Laird has.

Bishop Lee Piché will also continue to serve as Vicar General along with Father Laird. I ask you to join me in welcoming Father Laird to his new duties.

— Most Reverend Archbishop John C. Nienstedt
October 20, 2009

Pope Names Ninth Bishop for Diocese of Duluth

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI named Father Paul Sirba, 49, the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Duluth.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Diocese of Duluth
Contact: Kyle Eller, communications director
218.724.9111
keller@dioceseduluth.org

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Contact: Dennis B. McGrath, Director of Communications
651.291.4406
mcgrathd@archspm.org

SAINT PAUL, MN, October 15, 2009 – Bishop-elect Sirba was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1986. He is the son of Norbert (deceased) and Helen Sirba. He has two brothers, Father Joseph Sirba and John (Sue Ann) Sirba, and one sister Catherine (Scott) Kelly, 13 nieces and nephews, and three grand-nephews. He was raised in Bloomington, attended Nativity of Mary Grade School, the Academy of the Holy Angels, the College of St. Thomas and the Saint Paul Seminary. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Saint Paul Seminary and a Master of Arts degree in spiritual theology from the Notre Dame Apostolic Catechetical Institute in Arlington, VA. After his ordination, he served as associate pastor at St. Olaf Church in Minneapolis from 1986 to 1990 and at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Savage from 1990 to 1991, as a member of the spiritual formation department at St. John Vianney Semininary in St. Paul from 1991 to 2000, as pastor of Maternity of the Blessed Virgin in St. Paul from 2000 to 2006, and as spiritual director at the Saint Paul Seminary from 2006 to 2009. He was appointed vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis by Archbishop John C. Nienstedt on July 1, 2009.

In the name of the priests, deacons, religious and faithful of the archdiocese, Archbishop John Nienstedt expressed their “collective joy in the Holy Father’s appointment of Bishop-elect Paul Sirba to the Diocese of Duluth.” “Bishop-elect Sirba has been a priest of this Archdiocese for 23 years, and during that time, he has served with great distinction as a pastor, spiritual director at both our undergraduate and graduate seminaries, and more recently, as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese,” Archbishop Nienstedt said. “He is held in high esteem by the clergy of this local church. Along with his brother priests and the parishioners he has served, I greatly value his many valuable contributions to the building up of our Catholic faith here in St. Paul and Minneapolis. He will truly be missed. However, I also realize that he will not be far away, and I look forward to working with him in the Province.”

Father James Bissonette, diocesan administrator of the Diocese of Duluth, welcomed the news on behalf of the diocese. “It is a great blessing to the Diocese of Duluth that our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has sent us our next shepherd, Bishop-elect Paul Sirba,” he said. “I have known Bishop-elect Sirba since our seminary days. I know him to be a very good man and a fine priest with a deep spirituality. It is a special joy that he comes to our diocese somewhat familiar with it, since he already knows many of the priests and his brother Father Joseph Sirba serves here as a pastor. I, together with the lay faithful, religious and clergy of the Diocese of Duluth, welcome our new bishop and look forward not only to his ordination and his installation but to assisting him in his new mission as our shepherd.”

Diocese of Duluth website
Download Press Release (pdf)

Archdiocesan Planning Process

Please visit the planning process pages here to learn more about the process and to give us your feedback.

Catholic Services Appeal 2009

The Catholic Services Appeal, formerly the Archbishop's Annual Catholic Appeal, is now underway. 2009 is dedicated as the year of Saint Paul. Our theme was chosen from the writings of Saint Paul to the Romans 12:4-6 which states, “We, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them.”

For more information and to donate online, please visit the Catholic Services Appeal website at www.archspm.org/appeal.

Official Announcement

Saint Paul, MN, August 2009 – It has come to the attention of the Archdiocese that a group calling itself the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) is planning a 2010 ‘synod’ in the Archdiocese entitled, ‘Claiming Our Place at the Table’.

While the agenda for the proposed synod purports to be an exploration of the role of baptized Catholics within the institutional Church of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, it is not being conducted under the auspices of the Archdiocese, the universal Roman Catholic Church, or any entity or organization affiliated with the Archdiocese or the universal Roman Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese wishes it to be known that the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform, the 2010 synod, and individuals endorsing the same, are not agents or entities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis or the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, the Archdiocese wishes to lovingly caution those members of the faithful participating in the ‘work/study groups’ and intending to attend the synod of the potential that the issues on which CCCR will seek reform are magisterial teachings of the Church, and are therefore to be believed by divine and catholic faith. The Archdiocese also wishes to remind the faithful of its need to shun any contrary doctrines, and instead to embrace and retain, to safeguard reverently and expound faithfully, the doctrine of faith and morals proposed definitively by the magisterium of the Church.

Official Announcement

On June 26, 2009, the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, decreed that Deacon Martin Kelly Shanahan, a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, is dismissed from the clerical state ex officio et in poenam and released from all obligations of the clerical state. This supreme penalty was imposed on Mr. Shanahan after he abandoned the Catholic Church, sought 'priestly ordination' from a female bishop of the Apostolic Catholic Orthodox Church, and then attempted to administer the sacraments (simulation). The same decree indicated that the canonical censures incurred by Mr. Shanahan as a result of his schism remain in force.

The Archdiocese wishes the faithful to be aware that any ‘Mass’ or sacrament administered by Mr. Shanahan, with the exception of baptism, is invalid. The August 2000 declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus, does not apply to Mr. Shanahan’s attempted presbyteral ordination nor does it make any statement regarding the validity of the Orders of the Apostolic Catholic Orthodox Church.

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
226 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55102
(651) 291-4400
communications@archspm.org