From permanent deacon to priest

The story, from upstate New York:

When the Rev. Joseph Manerowski came to St. Mary’s Church in 2007 from the Immaculate Conception Church in Hoosick Falls, he said he hoped it would be his last move.

As it turned out, it was.

Manerowski will retire Sept. 1 after 23 years as a priest, and the church will be holding receptions for him on the church lawn after each of this weekend’s masses, which are scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday and 7:30, 9 and 11:15 a.m. Sunday.

“I am looking forward to the Masses and to bidding farewell to my parishioners,” he said Thursday. “We will have a tent set up for a reception after each Mass.”

…Manerowski had an unusual background for a priest — he was a married school guidance counselor with three children. He had been aiming at a career as a school principal, but after his marriage was annulled, he opted for the priesthood.

But then there’s this news about his successor:

The new pastor will be Rev. Thomas Morette, who is at All Saints on the Hudson, which has churches in Mechanicville and Stillwater.

Morette, who was ordained in 2005 and has been in his current post since 2012, has also served at Holy Trinity in Johnstown, St. Joseph’s in Broadalbin and St. Francis in Northville. He was an associate pastor at St. Henry’s in Averill Park and St. Michael the Archangel in Troy.

He attended Siena College, SUNY Albany, St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers and St. John XXII Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts.

Morette was initially ordained a deacon by Cardinal John O’Connor of the Archdiocese of New York in 1988 and served as a permanent deacon in New York before he became a priest for Albany.