
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990                   TAG: 9005190292
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CATHOLIC CHURCH ANNOUNCES REASSIGNMENTS

The Rev. William S. O'Brien, pastor of St. Andrew's Catholic Church since 1981, will move to St. John's Church of Waynesboro in the annual rotation of priests by Bishop Walter F. Sullivan.

O'Brien will be succeeded at the Roanoke Valley's oldest Catholic parish by the Rev. Carl J. Naro, a priest in the Diocese of Richmond for the past 38 years. The change becomes effective June 4. Steve Neill, a staff member of the diocesan office in Richmond, said Sullivan's practice is to reassign a pastor after five years in one church although annual extensions may be made up to 12 years.

Naro, 65, was reared in Pennsylvania. He began his career at Fort Monroe, spent a period as a rural Virginia missionary and later served congregations in Richmond, Danville and Lynchburg. His longest pastorate was for 12 years at Holy Comforter of Charlottesville, which he left last spring.

At that time Naro took a study leave at the Washington Theological Union. Since early this year he has been the interim administrator of St. Paul's Church in Portsmouth.

Several other assignments affect Catholics in Western Virginia.

The Rev. Thomas S. Collins, pastor at Sacred Heart of Covington for 12 years, is moving to St. Anthony's of Norton. He will be succeeded by the Rev. Edward C. Moran who has been an assistant at Holy Cross Church of Lynchburg. Moran, 39, was ordained a priest last year after a secular career.

The current Norton pastor, a former Roanoker, the Rev. Frank Wiggins, goes to St. Richard's of Emporia.

Our Lady of Nazareth Church of Roanoke will receive the Rev. Edward Prather as assistant to the Rev. Kenneth Stofft, senior pastor. He is a newcomer to the diocese.

Also new is Sister Fidelis Rubbo, a nun who will become pastoral coordinator of St. Francis of Assisi congregation at Rocky Mount. This church has been served for more than a decade by Sister Eveline Murray who will study at Loyola University in Chicago. Selection of a nun, because of a growing shortage of ordained men in the diocese, caps a search for a new type of parish coordinator. Neill said no one has been found yet to fill a similar job at Resurrection Church at Smith Mountain Lake.

by CNB