Fr. Greg Schlarb, pastor of St. Anne Parish in Gilbert, began serving as vicar of stewardship July 1.

Fr. Schlarb took the place of Fr. Bud Pelletier, the inaugural vicar of stewardship, who will now focus on his parish community, Our Lady of Joy in Carefree.

“To have made stewardship a household name, a parish-held name — one that our priests are not uneasy with, but are eager to know more about and embrace in their own lives — it’s a great achievement,” Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said of Fr. Pelletier, as reported in the July 3 issue of The Catholic Sun.

The vicar of stewardship is the face and driving force of the annual Charity and Development Appeal, which supports more than 70 charitable organizations that help the unborn, assist people in crisis, affirm vocations and strengthen families. The stewardship vicar also oversees stewardship formation throughout the diocese.

Fr. Schlarb promotes stewardship regularly at St. Anne Parish, hosting a monthly “four minute talk” on stewardship and dubbing January “St. Anne Stewardship Awareness Month.”

“When we share what we have,” Fr. Schlarb said, “God’s glory is abundant and many are fed in various ways.”

Read the full story by Ambria Hammel in your current issue of The Catholic Sun. To learn more about the Office of Stewardship, visit their Web site, www.phoenixstewardship.org.

The Catholic Sun is currently working on a profile of Fr. Greg Schlarb, reporting on his vision for the Office of Stewardship. Look for it in an upcoming issue.

- JD

The following story on Fr. Greg Schlarb ran in the June 21, 2007 issue of The Catholic Sun.

FROM MASS TO MEETINGS:

A day in the life of a Catholic priest

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun

GILBERT — Fr. Greg Schlarb starts his mornings early. The pastor of St. Anne Parish rises between 4:30 and 5 a.m. and heads off to the gym, where he swims.

Then, it’s back to the rectory for some prayer before the 8 a.m. Mass.

The Gospel reading for this particular Monday, June 11, the feast of St. Barnabas, was the Beatitudes. The Juan Diego chapel, where daily Mass is celebrated in the summer months, was filled to capacity as Fr. Schlarb offered a brief homily.

“The Beatitudes for us are our job description,” he said.

Later the priest, responsible for the large, ethnically mixed parish of 4,500 families with 22 full-time and 15 part-time employees, quoted St. Vincent de Paul to more fully describe his work.

“Do the good that presents itself to you,” he said.

For parish priests, “the good” finds many different and surprising ways to present itself everyday. This is more than a full-time job.

Striking a balance

This day, Fr. Schlarb has meetings at 9:30, 10, 11:30 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m. It was a light schedule for a Monday, he said.

“You’ve got to look at it as a balance,” he said of running the parish office and performing his sacramental duties.

“Priests will say I wasn’t ordained to be a business manager, but we were, in a way,” Fr. Schlarb said.

A pastor has to look after both the temporal goods and the spiritual goods of his parish, learning to strike a “balance” between them.

That balance comes more easily to Fr. Schlarb than to others. Before he entered the seminary, he worked in retail. At 19, he was managing a Robinsons-May store.

His background in the business world gave him a “taste” for management, which hasn’t abated. He said he reads many books on management to help him run the parish.

“I have a lot of meetings,” Fr. Schlarb admitted, but said that as pastor, one of his main duties is to minister to his staff. Through these meetings, he tries to “get the information out there” so that the parish can run smoothly and provide its services to the parishioners.

At 9:30 a.m., Fr. Schlarb met with Becky Gonzalez and Idalina Olivari, the director of parish administration and the parish accountant, respectively.

They discussed the upcoming parish budget, which was ready for review by the finance council.

At 10 a.m., Aaron Thompson, director of music and liturgy for the parish, joined Fr. Schlarb. They interviewed a man to lead the choir at the two Spanish Masses St. Anne offers each Sunday.

Fr. Schlarb mentioned that he wanted the Spanish and English Masses to do a better job mirroring each other. It’s for the sake of parish unity, and it’s a theme that presents itself throughout the day.

Something about unity

The parishioners at St. Anne Parish are diverse, Fr. Schlarb said. Twenty-five percent are Spanish speakers, and while the others speak English, that group is made up of Anglos, Asians, blacks and Pacific Islanders.

He is adamant that the diversity of the parish doesn’t become its dividing point.

“We don’t have Spanish ministry,” he explained. “We have bilingual components to each ministry.”

That’s an important distinction, he said. Many on the parish staff are bilingual as are Fr. Schlarb himself and Fr. John Lankeit, his associate pastor.

The parish is expecting a new priest from South America shortly and Fr. Schlarb wants to make sure that he doesn’t become a priest just for the Hispanic population, but for the whole parish.

One way he does this is through confessions.

When Fr. Schlarb arrived at St. Anne a year ago, there were different times throughout the week for confessions in English and in Spanish.

He consolidated the times, offering bilingual confessions on Monday through Thursday for an hour each afternoon. Additionally, the parish offers confession on Saturday.

Confession is well-attended every day, Fr. Schlarb said, adding that if parishes offer confession regularly, the faithful will show up.

Daily reconciliation is just a hint of the vibrant spiritual life at St. Anne.

A group of laity lead morning prayer in the chapel before Mass and pray the rosary immediately following the liturgy. The parish celebrates eight Masses each weekend, two of them in Spanish.

Fr. Schlarb described a Saturday not too long ago that showed parish life at its fullest.

The day began at 8 a.m. with 25 baptisms. A Mass followed at 10 a.m. when 56 children received their first Communion. At noon and 2 p.m., the parish celebrated weddings.

Priests heard confessions at 3 p.m. for an hour. The 4 p.m. vigil Mass was packed with 1,500 people and the second vigil Mass two hours later saw 104 parishioners receive the sacrament of confirmation.

Oh, and both Fr. Schlarb and Fr. Lankeit were called out during the day on sick calls.

“That’s six out of seven sacraments celebrated on one day,” Fr. Schlarb smiled.

‘Celebrating the gift of life’

Fr. Schlarb segued from the music minister job interview to a meeting about the parish school, a Montessori-based program for grades K-6.

Then a quick lunch followed another job interview, this one for a youth minister position. At 2 p.m., he met for more than an hour with his directors.

They meet once a week, and the meeting’s atmosphere is casual and relaxed. Fr. Schlarb began the meeting with a long Gospel reading and then posed questions to the staff.

They discussed the meaning of the woman who washed Christ’s feet with her tears.

Then it was down to business: more budget stuff, ironing out the summer calendar and planning an upcoming retreat filled out the hour.

At 4 p.m., Fr. Schlarb was due in the confessional, followed by vespers at 5:45 p.m. and then dinner.

It was a long day, but a normal one for the priest.

“You get into a rhythm,” he said, “balancing prayer, exercise and work.”

He thought back to the Saturday he described, when six of the seven sacraments were offered at St. Anne’s.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “We’re celebrating the gift of life that God’s given us. When you step back and reflect on that, it makes it all worthwhile.”